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CHAPTER IX

WORDS

A word is the sign of an idea. Whether the idea be an object, a
quality, an action, simple existence, or a relation, if it be
communicated to another, it must have some sign; in language these
signs are words. Infinitely varied are the ideas man has to express.
Each day, each moment, has its new combination of circumstances; yet
by the common person the effect of the novel situation is described as
"horrid" or "awful" or "perfectly lovely." Three adjectives to
describe all creation! No wonder that people are constantly
misunderstood; that others do not get their ideas. How can they? Do
the best the master can, the thought will not pass from him to his
reader without considerable deflection. He cannot say exactly what he
would. His words do not hold the same meaning for him as for others.
"Mother" to him is a dear woman with a gentle voice, always dressed in
black, sitting by the window of home; to another she is a shrieking
termagant, whose phrases are punctuated by blows. There is not a word
that means exactly the same to two persons; yet with words men must
express their thoughts, their feelings, their hopes, their
purposes,--always changing, ever new,--and for all this shall they use
but a few score of words? Words are the last, least elements of
language; without these least elements, these atoms of language, no
sentence, however simple, can be made; by means of them, the master
drives mobs to frenzy or soothes the pain of eternal loss. The calm
and peace which Emerson knew, we know; the perpetual benediction of
past years which Wordsworth felt, all may feel. These thoughts masters
have expressed in words, but not in three words. Thousands are not
enough accurately to transfer their visions of this changing universe
from them to us. Ideas infinite in their variety demand for their
expression all the means which our language has placed at the disposal
of the master. For this true expression the whole dictionary with its
thousands of words is all too small.

Need of a Large Vocabulary.

Whoever hopes to be understood must acquire a full, rich vocabulary.
However clearly he may think, however much he may feel, until he has
words, the thought, the emotion, must remain his alone. To get a
vocabulary, then, is a person's business. He who has it can command
him who has it not. Not in literatur