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43. A Large Vocabulary. It is not enough that we have an accurate knowledge of the words that we employ in our daily speech and in writing; we must have a large vocabulary to draw upon. Writers who use the same words often seem to us, when we read, to be repeating thoughts as well, and that feeling destroys our pleasure in the reading. Indeed, the thought of a composition cannot be developed as fully if the vocabulary in which it is written is a narrow one The intellectual poverty of the writer betrays itself in his poverty of words, and he says less, perhaps, than he means, and seems to say less still. In the following, from a student's paper, observe how the repetition of the words "lived," "mountains," "but," "crabbed," "thought," and "never," give the effect of lack of substance. There are other faults in the composition, but that of tautology is the most serious.

Old Tim Hardy was a miner who lived all alone in a little cottage up in the Rocky Mountains. For many years he had lived in this desolate region, eager to get some of the gold and silver that the mountains contained. He had searched often fruitlessly, but would never give up, but day after day he toiled, but in vain. His surroundings had done much towards changing his nature and the character of his life. The happy, gallant Tim of long ago had become, as time went on, the hard, crabbed old Tim Hardy. No one thought anything of him and never did a kind word pass his lips. He sometimes wondered why people never had anything to do with him, but he never once thought that it was his own crabbed nature from which they recoiled.

Obviously, then, we should strive to obtain a large vocabulary; for it is only by having an abundant supply of words at our command that we can bring out the fine distinctions of our own thought, and understand other writers who are careful to discriminate in their use of words. For some people no special effort to add to their stock of words is necessary; but for the majority of us such is not the case; we must strive continually to increase our supply until our vocabularies are adequate to our needs. To this end we should not only remember the new words which we meet, but we must grasp their significance with clearness and accuracy.

44. How to Increase our Vocabulary. — There are three sources from which one may hope to increase his vocabulary, — from reading, from the conversation of others, and from frequent writing. Undoubtedly a

varied and careful reading of good authors offers the best means of securing a supply of new words; but we may add to our store by listening to the conversation of intelligent and cultivated people. From both of these sources we shall obtain many words which we can soon make a part of our working vocabulary, by using them in our speaking and writing. Frequent writing is in itself a most fruitful method of enriching our vocabulary and keeping it vigorous.

If we do not easily remember words and their meanings, we should try to remedy the matter by taking note of all new words that come up in our reading, looking them up in a dictionary, and writing their meanings,

together with some few sentences in which they occur, in a note-book. Then as soon as possible we should use them. We all have two vocabularies, the vocabulary of the words that we understand more or less fully when we see them, and that of the words that we use ourselves, a much smaller number. There are, of course, a great many technical words of which we need to know the meaning, but with which we do not need to be so familiar that they will come easily to mind for our own use. On the other hand, technical words are often useful outside the literature of the occupation or profession in which they occur, and familiarity with some of the more common ones may at any time serve our pens a good turn. And we should remember that definite efforts to use words that are not a part of our writing vocabulary will result in adding them to the number of our working tools. Remember, too, that we think in words, and that if we lack words we shall, to some extent, lack ideas; for ideas are often but the refinements and distinctions of meaning which are involved in words themselves. Let us see how a great master of English prose, John Ruskin, uses words that are not those of our every-day speech.

But if we seek to know more than this and to ascertain the manner in which the story first crystallized into its shape, we shall find ourselves led back generally to one or other of two sources either to actual historical events, represented by the fancy under figures personifying them; or else to natural phenomena similarly endowed with life by the imaginative power usually more or less

under the influence of terror. The historical myths we must leave to the masters of history to follow; they, and the events they record, being yet involved in great, though attractive and penetrable, mystery. But the stars, and hills, and storms are with us now, as they were with others of old; and it only needs that we look at them with the earnestness of those childish eyes to understand the first words spoken of them by the children of men, and then, in all the most beautiful and enduring myths, we shall find, not only a literal story of a real person, not only a parallel imagery of moral principle, but an underlying worship of natural phenomena, out of which both have sprung, and in which both forever remain rooted. Thus, from the real sun, rising and setting, - from the real atmosphere, calm in its dominion of unfading blue, and fierce in its descent of tempest, the Greek forms first the idea of two entirely personal and corporeal gods, whose limbs are clothed in divine flesh, and whose brows are crowned with divine beauty; yet so real that the quiver rattles at their shoulder, and the chariot bends beneath their weight. And, on the other hand, collaterally with these corporeal images, and never for one instant separated from them, he conceives also two omnipresent spiritual influences, of which one illuminates, as the sun, with a constant fire, whatever in humanity is skilful and wise; and the other, like the living air, breathes the calm of heavenly fortitude, and strength of righteous anger, into every human breast that is pure and brave. The Queen of the Air.

"Ascertain" is a word we do not use often; and here Ruskin employs it rather than any of its synonyms, such as learn, find out, or discover, because to ascertain means to make more certain, and in this case some knowledge of the subject is presupposed. "Crystallized" we use even less often, but observe how effective it is here in

describing the slow process of growth of a legend, like that of a crystal, not to be seen or known until completed. "Personifying," "phenomena," "endowed," and "imaginative," are all words of but infrequent occurrence in ordinary speech and writing; and yet there is no reason why they should be cut off from every-day use. Other words that are not a part of the working vocabulary of most people.are "involved," "penetrable," "myths," "imagery," "underlying," "dominion," "corporeal," "quiver," "collaterally," "images," "conceives," "omnipresent," and "fortitude." Without these words Ruskin could never have expressed the thought and feeling of this paragraph with such clear vividness, and perhaps he could not have had just the same thoughts and feelings himself. Further, if Ruskin had merely known of these words in a vague way, they might almost as well have been out of the language, so far as their being of service to him is concerned.

We shall find it worth while to look for words that we do not ordinarily make use of, and when new words come up in our reading we should spend time in tracing up their origin in order to fasten them in the memory. The following paragraphs contain words that probably are not a part of your serviceable vocabulary. Bring to class a list of those that you do not use readily and bring also sentences that you have written to illustrate their use. Be sure that you have made diligent study of them in the dictionary, and have come to know with. sufficient certainty the shades of meaning by which they differ from other words of like signification.