inciple
of opposites. "Not peace through the medium of war; not peace to be
hunted through the labyrinth of intricate and endless negotiations,
not peace to arise out of universal discord, fomented from principle
in all parts of the empire; not peace to depend on the juridical
determination of perplexing questions, or the precise marking the
shadowy boundaries of a complex government."

We are told by an investigator that one of the reasons for a
Frenchman's keen insight into the capabilities of his language is the
early training received in schools covering differences among words.
This continual weighing of the meaning or the suitability of an
expression is bound to result in a delicate appreciation of its value
as a means of effective communication. In all mental action the sense
of contrast is an especially lively one. In a later chapter this
principle, as applied to explanation and argument, will be discussed.
Just here, the point is that the constant study of contrasts will
sharpen the language sense and rapidly enlarge the vocabulary.

EXERCISES

1. Put down a group of five words having similar meanings. Explain the
differences among them.

2. Choose any word. Give its exact opposite.

3. From any short paragraph copy all the nouns. In a parallel column
put opposites or contrasts.

4. Do the same for the adjectives, verbs, and adverbs.

5. Write down all the common nouns which correspond to _a man_, _a
girl_, _a leader_, _a house_, _a costume_, _a crime_.

Composition of the English Language. Turning now from the means of
improving the speaker's language equipment let us pass to some remarks
upon his use of words. The English language is the largest, the most
varied in the universe. Almost entirely free from difficulties of
inflection and conjugation, with a simplified grammar, and a great
freedom of construction, it suffers from only two signal
drawbacks--its spelling and its pronunciation. While it has preserved
to a great degree its original Anglo-Saxon grammar, it has enriched
its vocabulary by borrowings from everywhere. Its words have no
distinctive forms, so every foreign word can usually be naturalized by
a mere change of sound. No matter what their origin, all belong to one
family now; _gnu_ is as much English as _knew_, _japan_ as _pogrom_,
_fete_ as _papoose_, _batik_ as _radii_, _ohm_ as _marconigram_,
_macadamized_ as _zoomed_. Most of the modern borrowings--as just
illustrated--were to