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The social, commercial, technological, and intellectual forces that were released in the Renaissance had profound effects on the English language, as the previous chapter has described. In the middle and latter part of the seventeenth century the evolution and interaction of these forces led to a culmination, a series of crises, and an eventual reaction.

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In the light of this seventeenth-century background we may more readily understand the temper of the eighteenth century. The first half of the eighteenth century is commonly
designated in histories of literature as the Augustan Age in England. The principal characteristics of this age which affected the course of the English language emerged
early and maintained their influence throughout the century, in spite of the eruption of some radical challenges in the final two decades. The eighteenth century sought to retain
from the seventeenth century the best features of rational discourse that had been established while rejecting the uncontrolled proliferation of what sober minds regarded as
dangerous tendencies in English prose.

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1. Standardizing it through rules and a standard of usage
2. Refining the language of all its newfangled "corruption"
3. "Fixing" it-- that is, both repairing it and making it stable/firm

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1. It put English vocabulary on display.
2. It offered fixed spellings.
3. It offered quotations to see usage (Johnson got to decide if he were THE authority).
Johnson had an elitist attitude in lots of ways, or at least is biased against what he calls "barbarisms"*

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1. A call to REASON was often used to cover a multitude of suggestions about grammar to excuse what might seem like outrageous suggestions (the sue of reason meant consistency or analogy between grammatical principles)
2. ETYMOLOGY was also a useful principle (when the history of a word is clear and apparent in English, then the rules of the language of its origins should be followed)
3. Use of EXAMPLES FROM LATIN AND GREEK was a strategy that was not often brought to bear because may grammarians recognized that Latin and Greek grammar was not similar enough to English to be helpful