Page images
PDF
EPUB

indicate a process. Indeed, whenever we put them together in the right way, they necessarily do indicate this; for in such cases we put together sentences, and sentences invariably represent, if not physical, at least mental, processes, the subject, as a rule, indicating the beginning of them, the predicate the continuation of them, and the object, if there be one, the end of them. In fact, all the different grammatical parts of speech and modifications of them, viewed in one light, are merely methods of representing dependencies and relationships of different parts of whole processes, which, with more or less completeness, are represented by the sentences.

That we may perceive this and, at the same time, the degree in which all the different factors of the phraseology may be made to augment the force of the figures used in single words, let us examine a few sentences. As we do so, we shall find it possible to class all combinations of words under two heads, corresponding to those under which we have already grouped single words. The first class includes those depending for their meaning upon the principle of association, and the second, those depending upon the principle of comparison.

To get our bearings here, let us recall briefly that it has been said, with reference to the first class of words, that the emergencies or circumstances in which a certain exclamatory sound like mama or papa is used, cause men, on account mainly of its associations, to accept it as a word, meaning what it does; and that later, after a vocabulary has been partly formed, the same principle of association causes them to ally something for which they have a name with some other thing, and to use the same name for both, as when they call towns or implements after their founders or inventors. It has been said, again,

with reference to the second class of words, that a certain sound proceeding from an object perceived by men is imitated by their vocal organs, and, on account of the comparison between the two sounds, the one that they have produced is accepted as a name for that which originally produced it, as when cuckoo is adopted as a term of designation for a certain bird; and that later, after a vocabulary has been partly formed, the same principle of comparison causes them to perceive that some conception for which they have a term, is like some other conception, and to apply the same term to it also, as when they use the word clear to refer both to the atmosphere and to the mind.

In accordance with the analogy of these two methods of determining the meanings of words, when used singly, we shall find that we determine also their meanings when used conjointly, i. e., either by the associations which, when combined in phrases and sentences, the words suggest, or by the comparisons which they embody. To illustrate this, suppose that one says: "Their cultivated conversation and attire interfered with the effects of their depravity." The sentence, so far as concerns its meaning, is perfectly intelligible, and this because we have learned to associate with each of the words used, cultivated, conversation, attire, etc., a certain definite conception; and this conception comes up before the mind the moment that we hear them. But now, suppose the same thought is expressed, as in this sentence of Goldsmith: "Their finery threw a veil over their grossness." In this latter case, neither the word finery, nor threw, nor veil, nor grossness, has precisely the meaning that we are accustomed to associate with it. We do not understand the sentence precisely, until we consider it as a whole, and

then not until we consider that the whole expresses a comparison. In other words, the sentence means what it does, not mainly on account of the ordinary associations of its words, but on account of the comparison which it embodies. Take another pair of sentences which perhaps will illustrate this difference more clearly. Let one wish to express an unfortunate change in the character of a man hitherto honest. He may say that "His integrity is impaired by severe temptation"; and in this case his meaning will be obvious, because men associate definite meanings with the words integrity, impaired, severe, and temptation. Instead of using this language, however, the man may select words indicating a comparison, and a series of comparisons. He may make a picture of his idea, representing the process of the change in character, by describing the process of an analogous change in nature. He may say: "His uprightness bends before some pressing blast." Notice how much more definitely we perceive the comparison, the picture, in uprightness than in integrity, in bends than in impaired, in pressing than in severe, in blast than in temptation. In this last sentence, we perceive at once, as in a picture, the character that stood straight up, the clouds that gathered, the storm that burst, and the ruin that ensued. The immaterial process is represented literally in the material one, and only in connection with this latter have words like bends, pressing, and blast any relevancy.

CHAPTER XVII.

POETIC AND UNPOETIC WORDS.

Words depending for their Meanings on Association not necessarily Prosaic; nor those depending on Comparison necessarily Poetic-The Latter necessitate Imagination to originate, and, at first, to interpret them, but after being used become Conventional-This the Natural Tendency of all Words-Poets can always cause Words to seem Poetic. First, by selecting those representing Poetic Associations-This applies to Conventional Words-Second, by arranging Words imaginatively so as to suggest New Comparisons or Pictures-Why English of Anglo-Saxon Origin is preferred by our Poets-Have Familiar AssociationsSounds fit Sense-Are used by us in Different Senses-Figures represented in Compound Words Apparent-In General more SignificantWhy the English Language is fitted to remain Poetic.

IT T is natural that some may suppose that the principles unfolded in the last chapter would carry with them the inference that series of words and sentences like "Their cultivated conversation and attire interfered with the effects of their depravity," or "His integrity is impaired by severe temptation," the meanings of which, as has been said, are determined by the associations which we have with the terms used, would be classed as prose; and that series of words and sentences like "Their finery threw a veil over their grossness," and "His uprightness bends before some pressing blast," the meanings of which are determined by the comparisons embodied in the expressions, would be classed as poetry. In fact, when men speak of poetic language, do they not almost invariably

refer to language of the latter kind, i. e., to words and phrases full of comparisons and figures? Let us weigh this question carefully and detect, if we can, just how much truth and how much error is in the idea underlying it.

In contrasting the sentences quoted above, two things claim our notice; first, that expressions of the comparative kind, like "His uprightness bends before some pressing blast," call forth a greater effort of the imagination both to compose and to interpret them; and second, that these expressions call forth a greater effort of the imagination when first produced or heard than afterwards. In fact, if often used to represent the same idea, there comes to be a time when any number of terms like uprightness, pressing, bends, and blast suggest no pictures whatsoever, except to one in search of them. They become at last no more significant than words depending for their meanings on association; and often less so. In reading them, we are conscious of no more than could be gained from unsuggestive arbitrary symbols. Even, therefore, though in the main poetic language were confined to these words embodying comparisons, this of itself would not suffice to keep the words in such a condition that men would recognize the pictures in them.

When words pass thus from the language of imagination where they start, into that of mere conventionality, they move according to a natural tendency exemplified in every phase of intellectual development. The unfamiliar never can be understood by us till classified on the ground of likeness to some other thing that we have known before. The earliest name assigned to the unfamiliar object represents this fact. The Indian's "horse that breathes forth fire," the "iron horse," the "locomotive,"all, at first, present the mind with pictures. But after a

« PreviousContinue »