Words: Their Use and Abuse |
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Page 6
... expression by the high thoughts it utters , or it may in itself be- come so saturated with warm life and delicious association that every sentence shall palpitate and thrill with the mere fascination of the syllables . - T . W ...
... expression by the high thoughts it utters , or it may in itself be- come so saturated with warm life and delicious association that every sentence shall palpitate and thrill with the mere fascination of the syllables . - T . W ...
Page 17
... expression with a certain secret timidity , lest the lever should prove too ponderous for the hand that essays to wield it ; or rather , they resemble the rash student in the old legend , who was overmastered by the demons which he had ...
... expression with a certain secret timidity , lest the lever should prove too ponderous for the hand that essays to wield it ; or rather , they resemble the rash student in the old legend , who was overmastered by the demons which he had ...
Page 19
... expression , -ideas so subtile , or so vague and shifting , that most thinkers find it difficult to contemplate them at all , are conveyed on his page with a nicety , a felicity of phrase , that might almost provoke the envy of Shaks ...
... expression , -ideas so subtile , or so vague and shifting , that most thinkers find it difficult to contemplate them at all , are conveyed on his page with a nicety , a felicity of phrase , that might almost provoke the envy of Shaks ...
Page 23
... expression , so as to be above the necessity of using cheap and common words , or even using these with no subtle discrimination of their mean- ings . Rufus Choate once said to one of his students : You don't want a diction gathered ...
... expression , so as to be above the necessity of using cheap and common words , or even using these with no subtle discrimination of their mean- ings . Rufus Choate once said to one of his students : You don't want a diction gathered ...
Page 30
... expression of some costly oil , drop by drop . He would spend whole days on a few short sentences , passing each word under his concentrated scrutiny , so that each , challenged and examined , took its place in the structure like an ...
... expression of some costly oil , drop by drop . He would spend whole days on a few short sentences , passing each word under his concentrated scrutiny , so that each , challenged and examined , took its place in the structure like an ...
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Common terms and phrases
adjective Anglo-Saxon Archbishop Whately asked beauty called century character charm Cicero common corruption critic Demosthenes derived diction dictionary doubt eloquence England English language etymologists etymology expression fact familiar feeling force French genius German give grammar Greek guage heart hence Hengest human hundred ideas improprieties Italian J. H. Newman Johnson learned less Lindley Murray literature living London Lord matter Max Müller meaning meant Milton mind modern monosyllables moral nations nature never nickname noble once orator origin passage persons phrases poet remark reply rhetoric Roman Rufus Choate Saxon says secret sense sentence Shakspeare signify solecisms Solomon's vineyards sophism soul sound speak speakers speech spirit style Sydney Smith syllable talk tell term things thought tion tongue translated true truth utterance verb verbal verse vocabulary vulgar W. W. Skeat whole writer
Popular passages
Page 131 - The Prince of Cumberland! that is a step On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap, For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires: The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.
Page 329 - Three years she grew in sun and shower; Then Nature said: "A lovelier flower On earth was never sown; This child I to myself will take; She shall be mine, and I will make A lady of my own. "Myself will to my darling be Both law and impulse; and with me The girl in rock and plain, In earth and heaven, in glade and bower, Shall feel an overseeing power, To kindle or restrain.
Page 131 - Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided ; they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions.
Page 184 - Could I embody and unbosom now, That which is most within me, — could I wreak My thoughts upon expression, and thus throw Soul, heart, mind, passions, feelings, strong or weak, All that I would have sought, and all I seek, Bear, know, feel, and yet breathe — into one word, And that one word were lightning, I would speak ; But as it is, I live and die unheard, [sword.
Page 142 - While expletives their feeble aid do join; And ten low words oft creep in one dull line : While they ring round the same unvaried chimes, With sure returns of still expected rhymes ; Where'er you find " the cooling western breeze...
Page 302 - In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold; Alike fantastic, if too new, or old: Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.
Page 231 - Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke ; How jocund did they drive their team afield ! How bowed the woods beneath their sturdy stroke ! Let not Ambition mock their useful toil, Their homely joys and destiny obscure.
Page 124 - tis a common proof, That lowliness is young ambition's ladder, Whereto the climber-upward turns his face; But when he once attains the upmost round, He then unto the ladder turns his back, Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees By which he did ascend: so Caesar may; Then, lest he may, prevent.
Page 176 - And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
Page 148 - And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes: peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five?