It's folly to attempt to maintain the value of a currency as if there were some fixed standard of absolute value underpinning rates of exchange. The currency of language will inevitably be debased eventually. But it's wise to recognise that something of value is lost along the way, even if there's no point in resisting the change.
I speak as one who has had to survive more than one envisioning exercise of late. Once the word vision meant something and Blake, as ever, serves as a sane reminder of this. Here he is in The Marriage of Heaven of Hell, having just witnessed an appearance of the mighty Leviathan, with the angel that was guiding him having done a runner: ...I found myself alone sitting on a pleasant bank beside the river by moonlight, hearing a harper who sung to the harp; and his theme was: 'The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.'
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