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The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 38, December, 1860

A PLEA FOR FREEDOM FROM SPEECH AND FIGURES OF SPEECH-MAKERS.

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I observe, Messieurs of the "Atlantic," that your articles are commonly written in the imperial style; but I must beg allowance to use the first person singular. I cannot, like old Weller, spell myself with a We. Ours is, I believe, the only language that has shown so much sense of the worth of the individual (to himself) as to erect the first personal pronoun into a kind of votive column to the dignity of human nature. Other tongues have, or pretend, a greater modesty.

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