[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—Will the Spectator receive a protest from one of its readers against its abuse of the word " literally " ? On p. 557 we read that a certain incident as related by Mr. Kipling " literally smites one between the eyes." It may be that matters have gone so far as to make it seem hypercritical to protest : we read of a recent brass-band contest that " the audience literally hung on each note" ; it often happens that applause literally brings down the house (sometimes at a cricket or football match); but, after all, the Spectator has a sound English tradition to safeguard.—I am, Sir, &c., A. NERVE BRAYSHAW.
[Nostra culpa nostra maxima culpa. There is no possible excuse for our barbarism, unless it be the subtlety of infec- tion, and that, we fully admit, is but a poor excuse.—En. Spectator.]
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