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Would you like to see an example of how far our literacy skills have fallen in the last 200 years? Benedict Arnold wrote an open letter to his former country while the War of Independence still raged. His letter was published in the British newspaper
The London Chronicle and entitled
"A Letter to the Inhabitants of America," which generally most people of both countries could read and comprehend. Here are the two opening paragraphs:
"I should forfeit, even in my own opinion, the place I have so long held in yours, if I could be indifferent to your approbation, and silent on the motives which have induced me to join the King's arms.
A very few words, however, shall suffice upon a subject so personal; for to the thousands who suffer under the tyranny of the usurpers in the revolted provinces, as well as to the great multitude who have long wished for its subversion, this instance of my conduct can want no vindication; and as to the class of men who are criminally protracting the war from sinister views at the expence of the public interest, I prefer their enmity to their applause. I am, therefore, only concerned in this address, to explain, myself to such of my countrymen, as want abilities, or opportunities, to detect the artifices by which they are duped."
You can read the rest of the letter's text by clicking the letter's title above. At the end of the letter is a link to the original newspaper article. See if you notice a peculiar literary hurdle the people of the 18th century had to overcome in order to read print.
Mar. 2, 2006 - in our own defense (just a bit... :)
While it is very clear that this style of writing is more complicated than most we see today, one thing that should be pointed out is that most of the words used were more common then than now. Thus, while the complexity of the sentence structure is notable, we might infer a bit too much. We tend to read these things and think, "Wow, he uses really difficult and unusual words," but these may well be the more common words, of his day.
Nevertheless, the writing style and sentence structure is clearly far beyond most of what we see today.
When I was in 11th grade, struggling through some of the long, American literature selections, picked up an 8th grade McGuffy reader. I was surprised to find there one of the exact speeches I had just struggled through! Certainly, there was more depth in 8th grade then, than in most high school, today. (For the record, by the time my little brother took that course, the school had replaced the textbook with a much easier one, as well!)
Mar. 2, 2006 - Exactly my point!
My4LittleWomen said, ".....one thing that should be pointed out is that most of the words used were more common then than now."
Exactly my point. We don't commonly use words like Benedict Arnold did because our overall literacy skills have fallen so that we don't use them. For us to have a language that is as rich in vocabulary as the English language, and not use them, is an indicator of a dumbing down process that has resulted in increasing the number of meanings per word as the number of words used becomes fewer. A good example of this is the word "democracy" which has supplanted "republic" when referring our country's type of government.
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