Life on the Mississippi • Paragraph 986
Stage 1 of 6

Read it through once

No one in the world speaks blemishless grammar; no one has ever written it--_no_ one, either in the world or out of it (taking the Scriptures for evidence on the latter point); therefore it would not be fair to exact grammatical perfection from the peoples of the Valley; but they and all other peoples may justly be required to refrain from _knowingly and purposely_ debauching their grammar.