particular department must be specially exercised. The acquisition of words can be secured by a study of dictionaries, by accurately observing every new term that is heard or seen, and particularly by translating from one language into another. It should be heeded by the student that a familiarity with words can not be secured accidentally, any more than any other valuable power.

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In like manner words, once comprehended and stored in the memory, must be employed frequently, or they will not be ready to do the bidding of their master when needed. The frequent and careful use of the pen is a great aid to the memory. The oft-quoted apothegm of Bacon should be regarded: "Reading maketh a full man, conference [conversation or use] a ready man, and writing an exact man."

22. Advice of Bacon.-The following advice of this illustrious author, though comprehending more than directly applies to the present subject, is all pertinent to a study of Rhetoric:

"If a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not. Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtile; natural philosophy, deep, moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend."

In the above extract, the careful reader will note that several words are used with a signification that is now either obsolete or not common. They are, "had need have" for needs to have, "confer " for converse, "cunning" for skill, "that" for that which or what.

COMMAND OF A VOCABULARY.

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This illustrates the changes in the meaning and use of words gradually introduced into the language.

23. Further Advice on Cultivating a Remembrance of Words. To obtain a knowledge of words and a facility in their employment, it is a commendable practice never to pass over a word in reading without a thorough perception of its meaning, and to employ in speaking or writing as great a variety of choice and appropriate terms as can be commanded, provided that none are used superfluously. Also, while it is profitable to study carefully other languages, no person should presume to consider himself well educated, without having spent much time, not only in the study of the grammar, but in the special and severe study of the words of his own language.

24. Advice of Choate on Choice of Words.-Mr. Choate, whose opinion on the style of Erskine has already been quoted, was himself the master of a rich, copious, and highly-ornamented style, which could not have been acquired without the patient study of words. His opinion on this subject is worthy of notice:

"The culture of expression should be a specific study, quite distinct from the invention of thought. Language and its elements, words, are to be mastered by direct, earnest labor. A speaker ought daily to exercise and air his vocabulary, and also to add to and enrich it. Translations should be pursued with these two objects, to bring up to the mind and employ all the words you already own, and to tax and torment invention and discovery, and the very deepest memory, for additional, rich, and admirably-expressive words. In translating, the student should not put down a word till he has thought of at least six synonyms, or varieties of expression, for the idea. Dictionaries are of great service in this filling up and fertilizing of dic

tion. You do not want a diction gathered from the newspapers, caught from the air, common and unsuggestive; but you want one whose every word is full freighted with suggestions and associations, with beauty and power."*

The last suggestion will be felt by every good student. A stream can not rise higher than the fountain. Those who read only inferior productions, and listen only to poorly-educated speakers, will imbibe their imperfect style. Every student should read the books of classic reputation in his own language, and laboriously and discriminatingly select words when attempting to express his own thoughts.

The young writer should devote time and study to the art of composition, and should write and rewrite his productions carefully, and read and repeat them frequently, to acquire correctness, copiousness, and readiness in expression.

*Reminiscences of Rufus Choate, pp. 248, 249.

SYNONYMOUS WORDS.

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CHAPTER VII.

DISCRIMINATION IN THE USE OF WORDS.

25. Synonymous Words.-THE English language is remarkably rich in words. As it readily receives and assimilates terms from any other language with which it comes in contact, it employs many words that have nearly the same signification. Words having precisely the same signification are called synonymous words, and the term is sometimes extended so as to embrace words that differ but slightly in meaning. Swiftness and velocity, brotherly and fraternal, yearly and annual, stay and continue, abide and remain, hint and suggest, wave and billow, are specimens of words that so closely resemble each other in signification as to be called synonymous. Inferior and careless speakers recognize no distinction in the meaning of such words. If we consult our dictionaries, we find that a large majority of the words in the language are defined or explained simply by the use of other single words that are supposed to bear a meaning nearly identical with the words defined.

26. Slight Diversity in the Meaning of Synonymous Words. Careful scrutiny will show that in all instances these words really differ in meaning, though sometimes by a slight shade, imperceptible to an uneducated mind. As the musical ear is trained to dis

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criminate between similar sounds, and the eye of a painter to distinguish similar colors, so an educated mind will recognize a difference in the rank or comprehensiveness of words called synonymous. Correct and elegant writers and speakers recognize and observe these facts, and even ignorant readers are charmed by this discrimination and accuracy, though they know not the origin of their pleasure, and can not themselves command such power.

Swiftness, for instance, is a pure English word, coming down from the Anglo-Saxon, and universally understood. It is the exact opposite of slowness. Velocity is from the Latin, and is more elegant, but less forcible, and may even apply to objects moving slowly. We may say "a slow velocity," but not "a slow swiftness." And yet velocity is used to denote the very greatest degree of swiftness ever exhibited, as when we speak of the velocity of a cannon-ball, or of lightning, or of the celestial bodies; velocity is therefore much more comprehensive than swiftness. Such facts can be learned only by very careful and discriminating reading, which is aided by a study of other languages, ancient and modern; but a close attention to the practice of the most approved authors in our own language will largely supply the want of acquaintance with the Anglo-Saxon, Latin, Greek, and other languages from which the English is derived. Brotherly and fraternal are almost exactly the same, the former being Anglo-Saxon, and the latter Latin. If they differ at all, it is in the slightly superior definiteness and force of the former. Horse and