SELF-CULTIVATION IN ENGLISH, by George Herbert Palmer, published 1909 by the Houghton Mifflin Company of Boston as one of the “Riverside Education Monographs.”

But the very fact that literary endowment is immediately recognized and eagerly envied has induced a strange illusion in regard to it. It is supposed to be something mysterious, innate in him who possesses it, and quite out of the reach of him who has it not. The very contrary is the fact. No human employment is more free and calculable than the winning of language. Undoubtedly there are natural aptitudes for it, as there are for farming, seamanship, or being a good husband. But nowhere is straight work more effective. Persistence, care, discriminating observation, ingenuity, refusal to lose heart, —tend toward it here with special security. Whoever goes to his grave with bad English in his mouth has no one to blame but himself for the disagreeable taste; for if faulty speech can be inherited, it can be exterminated too. I hope to point out some of the methods of substituting good English for bad. And since my space is brief, and I wish to be remembered, I throw what I have to say into the forms of four simple precepts, which, if pertinaciously obeyed, will, I believe, give anybody effective mastery of English as a tool.
文学天赋能迅速得到人们认可并引起艳羡，但这也造成一种奇怪的假象，似乎文学天赋是拥有者与生俱来的一种神秘特质，是不具备这种特质的人难以企及的。而事实正好相反。在人类所能中，没有哪一样能比驾驭语言更自由更可靠。毋庸置疑，有的人确实有学习语言的天资，就像有的人天生擅于耕作，有的人长于航海，有的善为人夫一样。但是，最有效的始终是后天的付出。坚持不懈、悉心谨慎、辨别观察、独出心裁、百折不挠这些品质才是其根本保障。至死英语都说不好的人要怪也只能怪自己没品，因为如果病语能被继承的话，它也就能被消灭。我希望提供一些方法，让英语说不好的人说得好。鉴于空间有限，也因为我想留名，所以我把所有我要说的归结为四个简单的准则。如果坚持遵从，那么任何人都可以有效地将英语作为一种工具掌握好。

First, then, “Look well to your speech.” It is commonly supposed that when a man seeks literary power he goes to his room and plans an article for the press. But this is to begin literary culture at the wrong end. We speak a hundred times for every once we write. The busiest writer produces little more than a volume a year, not so much as his talk would amount to in a week. Consequently through speech it is usually decided whether a man is to have command of a language or not. If he is slovenly in his ninety-nine cases of talking, he can seldom pull himself up to strength and exactitude in the hundredth case of writing. A person is made in one piece, and the same being runs through a multitude of performances. Whether words are uttered on paper or to the air, the effect on the utterer is the same. Vigor or feebleness resulted according as energy or slackness has been in command. I know that certain adaptations to a new field are often necessary. A good speaker may find awkwardness in himself when he comes to write, a good writer when he speaks. And certainly cases occur where a man exhibits distinct strength in one of the two, speaking or writing, and not in the other. But such cases are rare. As a rule, language once within our control can be employed for oral or for written purposes. And since the opportunities for oral practice enormously outbalance those for written, it is the oral which are chiefly significant in the development of literary power. We rightly say of the accomplished writer that he shows a mastery of his own tongue.
首先，“悉心留意自己的言语”。通常认为，若有人要寻求文学的力量，他会走进自己的房间，认认真真写好一篇文章去发表，但这其实是本末倒置的。动笔一回，已是言说百次。最忙碌的作家一年产出不过一卷，还不及他一周的言谈。因而，人们总是通过言语来判定一个人是否掌握好了自己的语言。如果一个人在九十九次的口头言说中都很马虎懒散，那么他在第一百次的笔头写作中也几乎不可能做到挥斥方遒、严谨正确。文如其人，人有千象。懒散懈怠导致语言无力，精力充沛则使表达充满活力。我知道顺应新领域做出调整经常是必须的。优秀的演说家伏案落笔时会感到无所适从，而优秀的作家唇口开阖时又会语无伦次。在言说和写作之中，有些人只是长于其一，不能兼攻两项。但这种情况其实是比较少见的。通常，语言一经掌握，就均可服务于言谈与写作。由于口头练习的机会远远多于书面写作，所以在培养文学功力方面，口头表达尤其重要。我们可以公正地讲，成绩斐然的作家也是巧舌如簧。