io6 Concerning Preciosity
thus seem that language, at least, is becoming effectively social-
ised. And here, let us hope, lies the security against that mild
form of the malady of preciosity which is apt to follow the wide
diffusion of an imperfect culture. The preciosity of democratic
half-culture, in an age of knowledge, is at the worst a much less
extravagant thing than the preciosities of the upper-class culture
of ages in which all culture was narrow. So that the so-called
process of “ levelling-down,” here as in other matters, turns out to
give the best securities for a general levelling-up.
thus seem that language, at least, is becoming effectively social-
ised. And here, let us hope, lies the security against that mild
form of the malady of preciosity which is apt to follow the wide
diffusion of an imperfect culture. The preciosity of democratic
half-culture, in an age of knowledge, is at the worst a much less
extravagant thing than the preciosities of the upper-class culture
of ages in which all culture was narrow. So that the so-called
process of “ levelling-down,” here as in other matters, turns out to
give the best securities for a general levelling-up.