Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way, but it is generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it. Our civiliza-tion is decadent, and our language— so the argument runs—must inevitably share in the general collapse. It follows that any struggle against the abuse of lan-guage is a sentimental archaism, like preferring candles to electric light or hansom cabs to aeropla-nes. Underneath this lies the half-conscious belief that language is a natural growth and not an instru-ment which we shape for our own purposes.