GRAMMATICAL PUNCTILIOS.
[TO TUE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."]
fully share the surprise of Mr. A. H. Davis (Spectator, June 21st) at the strong dislike which is _felt for the split infinitive. We learn from him that this clear and, so to say, handy mode of expression is not to be found in Addison. There is, however, some authority for it in good writers. As I was lately reading Macaulay's essay on Lord Holland, my attention was caught by the phrase "to fully appreciate." Also, if my memory serves me, the split infinitive has been employed by Matthew Arnold. It was, perhaps, with the view of adapting his diction to his hearers that he indulged in this convenient Americanism when delivering his American lectures. The non-use of the split infinitive is, however;more intelligible than the disuse of another convenient form of expression, for which the mos majorunt pleads tmequivocally. The substitution of "whose" for the clumsy "of which" seems now to be proscribed, or to be tolerated only when the antecedent is a substantive standing for a body of men, such as-" College" or "nation." Yet our Authorised Version
speaks of "the fruit tree whose seed is in itself" and Milton bemoans the eating of the fruit :— " Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste Brought death into the world and all our woe." Char/es Austin, himself a precisian of the first water, _re- marked to me that, if the question is merely one of precedent, the authority of Milton should be amply sufficient.—I am,
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