The Quakers might have had honest scruples
against you for thou, when you was a mark of flattery. But they can have
no reasonable scruples now, and therefore they should cease to be
singular, for the word you is clearly no mark of flattery at the present
day. However improper it might once have been, it is now an innocent
synonime."
"The use again of the word thou for you, as insisted upon by the
Quakers, leads them frequently into false grammar. 'Thee knowest,' and
terms like these, are not unusual in Quaker mouths. Now the Quakers,
though they defended the word thou for you on the notion, that they
ought not to accustom their lips to flattery, defended it also
strenuously on the notion, that they were strictly adhering to
grammar-rules. But all such terms as 'thee knowest,' and others of a
similar kind, must recoil upon themselves as incorrect, and as
censurable, even upon their own ground."
"The word you again may be considered as a singular, as well as a plural
expression. The world use it in this manner. And who are the makers of
language, but the world? Words change their meaning, as the leaves their
colour in autumn, and custom has always been found powerful enough to
give authority for a change."
With respect to these objections, it may be observed, that the word you
has certainly so far lost its meaning, as to be no longer a mark of
flattery.
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