We have spoken previously of discreet change of phrase as a worthy means of securing variety of style. But by simple faithfulness in the expression of thought through all its varied transformations we attain a variety that is deeper, more essential and pervading, than can be elaborated by any artifices of style. As scarcely any two ideas or emotions are completely alike, if we can find for each an exact expression, our expressions must be constantly varied and ever new. By its fitness our utterance will have the variety of life, the sparkle and freshness of ever-changing thought. 3. Fulness. Often it is a great study to bring language up to the exaltation of thought. The far summit rises beyond the clouds, white in the light of a loftier sky. What words may picture for others the vision of grandeur that the soul in some supreme moment has attained? Many a vision fades and dies, just because no words were found to portray the splendor of its glory. This is the problem of the orator, the poet, the essayist, of all who would greatly influence their fellow men by speech. The commonplace is everywhere. To rise above it, one must know the words of loftiest range. Thus in Tennyson's "Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington," when he would picture the victor of Waterloo as he stood in the affection and reverence of his countrymen, he writes: "Great in council and great in war, "Sublime" is the only word that could fitly close the sketch of such a character as the poet has pictured. "Grand," "noble," "lofty," "majestic," "admirable," -all would fall short. SUBLIME rises to the supreme height of greatness. It is all the more effective since it is made the last word in the sentence. William E. Henley knew the value of last words when he wrote his familiar lines: "It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul." The same may be said of the lamented Rupert Brooke, the English poet, who died of illness when serving in the operations in the Ægean during the early part of the great European war of 1914, and who, in a poem entitled "The Soldier," wrote: "If I should die, think only this of me: That there's some corner of a foreign field In that rich earth a richer dust concealed." That these highest words may be available for noble uses, they must not be brought forth on ordinary or trivial occasions, but be held carefully in reserve. Otherwise one comes to some great occasion with no words to meet its demand except such as have been already profaned or belittled by ignoble use. There are times for the ordinary and commonplace. On those occasions use ordinary and commonplace words. Your words are fitting then, and you are saving your strength and the attention of your hearers or readers for something greater to come. Then, as the plane of thought rises, let the words rise with it, fitting the thought still. So, at the very climax of your attainment, you have other words, yet unused and unworn, that may come forth with their own native force to match the greatest thought you have to utter. CHAPTER VI THE ENGLISH DICTIONARY AND HOW TO USE IT A complete dictionary is a compendium of all human knowledge-so far, at least, as that can be expressed in the words of one language. For all real knowledge is sure to find its expression in words, so that if we know all the words of a language, we have a general knowledge of all which that language can tell. The making of a dictionary is a vast undertaking. In the olden time an English dictionary could be made by one man, with a certain amount of clerical assistance. So, doubtless, was prepared the first English dictionary worthy of the name, giving not only words, but their definitions in English. This was the work of John Bullokar, published in 1616, and entitled "The English Expositor." We know certainly that Dr. Samuel Johnson's "Dictionary of the English Language," published in 1755, was made in seven years by that one man, with only the aid of humble assistants, whose work consisted very largely in copying quotations, which he had selected and marked for them. In the United States, in 1807, Noah Webster, then forty-nine years of age, and distinguished for a quarter of a century as a writer and educator, and especially as the author of "Webster's Spelling Book," which had come to be used almost universally in the United States, set definitely to work at his "American Dictionary of the English Language, for which he had long been collecting material. He spent twenty-one years in all in the preparation of his dictionary, exclusive of the preliminary work done before 1807, himself defining from 70,000 to 80,000 words. Worcester's "Dictionary of the English Language," published in 1859, was likewise an individual work. Since that period no great English dictionary has been the personal achievement of a single editor. The rapid advance of knowledge has made this a physical impossibility. The later editions of the "Webster's" dictionaries, which are new works in all but the name, the "Century Dictionary," of 1891, and the "Standard Dictionary," of 1893, were each many years in preparation under the hands of an extensive staff of eminent scholars. The "New Standard Dictionary" of 1913 numbers among its editors "more than 380 specialists and other scholars." The "New English Dictionary on Historical Principles," published at Oxford, England, commonly called from the name of its leading editor, "Murray's Dictionary," is a vast work in ten volumes, the preparation of which in its present form has occupied more than thirty-eight years, while the collections on which it is founded had begun long before under the charge of the Philological Society of England. In every one of these great dictionaries of recent years, each department, as of Zoology, Botany, Chemistry, Geology, Astronomy, Physics, Etymology, etc., has been under the charge of a specialist of eminence in that department, while an extensive office staff of scholarly editors, with a special bureau of quotations, has reviewed and unified all the work of the various departments and shaped all into proper lexicographical form. Not one of the learned editors could have done it all; not one of them but has occasion often to seek instruction from the very diction ary on which he has labored, when he would know of matters outside of his own department. The result of all this is that the student should respect the dictionary. It knows more than you do. Under any given word you may be sure of obtaining a definition prepared by a master of that subject, and giving the best result available up to the time of going to press. No dictionary is infallible, but any error a great modern English dictionary may contain will be one that has entered in spite of all that the care and toil of a force of scholars including some of the most eminent men of the day could do to prevent. The chance of an average reader finding such an error may be regarded as negligible. Come to your dictionary in a humble and teachable spirit. If its statements differ from your previous belief or practise on any point, conclude that you, yourself, have been in error-unless you are able to reverse its decision by some other authority of equal ability. Be sure that if you do not study the dictionary at all, you are living in a density of ignorance with which you can only be satisfied because it is so complete. "But the dictionary contains so much that I do not want." So does the telephone directory. You are visiting or trading with very few of the persons named therein; but you do not know at what moment you may wish to call up any one of them, from Adams to Zimmerman. The directory gives you the power to speak at will with any one of thousands in a great city. The dictionary is a directory of words. Within its covers are ranged thousands upon thousands, waiting silently, unobtrusively, patiently, for your summons. But do not be afraid of the extra words. They can not get out. Some persons have a horror of the dictionary, looking upon it as a beehive from which, if care |