Both SIR,—Anybody who cares for words cannot but be interested
in their varying usage. Two instances of a change have lately struck my eager eye. Messrs. Faber and Faber, in their advertisement of Leone Vivante's English Poetry in The Times Literary Supplement of July 14th, say that " it will be equally valuable to both poets and philosophers." How it could be equally valuable to one and not to the other, does, I confess, puzzle me. Again, in the Spectator of August 14th, Sir William Beach Thomas, speaking of the Usk and the Ouse, tells us that, " Both names, of course, are philologically identical." How one could be identical all by itself I do not know. I am aware—as who is not?—that Aureng- Zebe in Dryden's play declares that " Both is a sound of joy "; but this can hardly have been the reason why the word was used in the abovt instances. Could you, or Janus, throw any light on the matter?—I am, Sir, your humble, faithful, and expectant servant, HOMINY MOWBRAY.
13 Laputa Terrace, Laguda, 3.
P.S. I seem to remember something of the same sort cropping up many years ago. Marie Corelli said—at least according to Sir Owsn Seaman- " Paris and Paradise, the words are synonymous, the one quite as much as the other." But perhaps my delighted memory deludes me.
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