A beginning of century hampered by the idea that the French language reached its point of perfection, an end of century energized by the belief in progress in and by the language: with regard to the new words, the 18th century seems to pass from an extreme to the other. However, this description should be moderated: to qualify the French language, the word of perfection is recurring at the beginning of the century, but poverty is also found, in the philosophers, the translators, the poets; and at the end of the century, the protest against the neologisms is not the prerogative of the counter-revolutionaries. If, during the century, the factory of the new words removed its quotas, it remains under the control of what is called the "analogy of the language": nothing is created that is not in conformity with existing patterns. These patterns, the neological activity of the 18th century taught to better recognize them: at the beginning of the 19th century, they are the subject of the first systematic descriptions; but it accustomed also to perceive them by a way less strictly rational, that is beginning to be called the "feeling of the language".
