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Now in our busy world of today, where a language has no frontier
guards, it is exposed to many malign influences. As I have said, I
do not think French is in such danger as English, but it is in danger.
I do not object to new words, for there is need for these in a fast
moving world. What I fear is rather the breakdown of structure,
that logical ordonnance for which the French have always been famous.
I do not even mind a certain amount of argot, for the language of
good literature. is always being enriched by words drawn from popular
usage. What I want kept sacrosanct is the structure, for on the
structure depends lucidity. In the words of a famous French critic,

"Ce qui n'est pas clair n'est pas francais". N.P. The real enemy is not
the people but the pedants. There are many sciences which seem to
be adopting an obscure jargon of their own, full of difficult neologisms
and most cumbrous constructions. They lack that clarity
which should be the first aim in scientific writing, perhaps because
the writers are not very clear themselves as to what they mean.
This is a very great danger for the English speech. It seems to me
that many writers, especially in the United States, and particularly
in the social sciences, the style is becoming so congested and
ugly that it is impossible to read the works with any pleasure or
any real understanding. This must never be allowed to happen to the
French tongue. France has always set an example to the world of
how the most subtle and difficult thoughts can be expressed with
crystal clearness. I would take in science Henri
Poincaré and in philosophy Henri Bergson, examples of writers who can
give to the most intricate speculations the grace and lucidity of a