4. What fifteen words in Exercise 53 imply most to you? What five words imply least to you? 66 SECTION 47 Vigor in the Use of Words 2. GENERAL WORDS AND SPECIFIC WORDS Precision requires the use of a general word for a general idea, and of a specific word for a specific idea. That is, if you think "animal," you are to say "animal,” and not "cat" or "dog" or "sheep"; and if you think “cat,” "dog," or "sheep," you are to say "cat," "dog," or sheep," and not “animal.” But vigor requires something more than this. Vigor requires not only the fitting of general words to general ideas, and of specific words to specific ideas, but also the thinking of many specific ideas. Now, the thinking of specific ideas is the hardest kind of work for the lazy mind. The reason is this: Most general ideas include several, often very many, specific ideas, and it is commonly easier to let a general idea stay general, and to most people a general idea is a vague idea, -than it is to draw out from that general idea the one needed specific idea. Thus, if we see a thing move, let it be a baby, a man, a bird, or a fish, it takes less mental energy to put down the general word "move" than it takes to think out the specific motion, and then to describe that specific motion by the specific word that precisely expresses the idea,-as "creep," "walk," "fly," or "swim." And yet it is almost always worth while to put forth the mental energy needed to get the specific idea, for it is the specific word, with the specific idea back of it, that starts the most vivid image in the mind of the reader. Consider the flowers, how they gradually increase in their size; they do no manner of work, and yet I declare to you that no king whatever, in his most splendid habit, is dressed up like them. If, then, God in his providence doth so adorn the vegetable productions, which continue but a little time on the land, and are afterwards put into the fire, how much more will he provide clothing for you?1 Consider the lilies, how they grow they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If, then, God so clothe the grass, which is to-day in the field, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith ? 2 Though specific words give vigor to writing, and thus deliver it from dulness, they are not therefore always to be preferred to general words. There is a real work for general words to do, and specific words can no more do this work than general words can do the work of specific words. For instance, general words are quite indispensable for the making of precise distinctions of thought in science and philosophy. General words have also to be used whenever it is necessary to sum up the characteristics of a number of related things, the members of a single class of objects. Certain subtle effects, moreover, which cannot be discussed here, are to be got by the use of general terms, such effects, for example, as by the very vagueness of the language in which they are clothed stimulate thought. "For old, unhappy, far-off things," "Enclosed in a tumultuous privacy of storm,” “The sessions of sweet, silent thought," and the like, are examples of these rare effects. 1 Campbell, The Philosophy of Rhetoric, 278–279. Exercise 55 1. Make a list of specific words for each of the following general words : Sound, apple, living being, insect,1 bird, tree, house, planet, force, pleasant, disagreeable, see, work. 2. Use the following general and specific words in original sentences: (1) Farm tool, pitchfork; (2) dog, watch-dog, mastiff; (3) flower, buttercup; (4) facial expression, a frank look, a keen look, a crafty look, a wistful look, a stolid look; (5) move, walk, run, hop, skip, jump, leap, slide, slip, creep, crawl, stroll, saunter, tramp, stalk, dodge, glide, march, trudge, ramble, bowl along, ride, drive, travel, etc., etc. 3. Study Lincoln's use of specific and general words in the Gettysburg Address (Section 46). 4. Make lists of the specific words in two or three of the descriptive selections at the beginning of Chapter VII. Substitute general words for the specific words in the first selection, and note the effect. 5. Study the use of general words in the selection quoted in Section 19. Can specific words be substituted for any of the general words? SECTION 48 Vigor in the Use of Words 3. FIGURATIVE WORDS AND LITERAL WORDS Figurative words, when not used for mere embellishment, and in ordinary theme work they should never be so used, are commonly more vigorous than literal words. This is because figurative words, or, to be more precise, 1 Note that "insect" is general as compared with "bee," but specific as compared with "living being." words used figuratively, commonly express or imply more than literal words, or, to be quite precise, words used literally have the power either to express or to imply. They do this by indicating or suggesting relations which mere literal expressions cannot make evident. Although figurative expressions are not always understood instantly, more often than not, probably, they are, -like stimulants, they excite in the mind of the reader far more than the extra amount of energy required for their interpretation. Figurative words, however, may not be so deliberately sought after as short words or specific words. If they are deliberately sought after, they are quite likely to seem affected. To use figurative words effectively, therefore, you must in some measure think in figures; that is, you must use figurative expressions so naturally and so aptly that they will attract little or no attention as mere figures of speech. If figures do not come to you thus easily and naturally, you will do well to scan your figures as curiously as you know how. Pause over each figure in your writing, and ask yourself such test questions as these: "Does this figure grow naturally out of my subject?" "Is it likely to give my readers pleasure?” "Is the figure consistent?" "Is the comparison I have made one that I myself have thought out?" "Is the figure in the best possible form?" If a figure will not stand the test of such questions as these, it had better be cut out, and some simple, unstudied literal expression put in its place. NOTE. A review of the figures most used may be necessary at this point. Metaphor, simile, personification, apostrophe, and metonymy, at any rate, should be defined and illustrated. The matter is treated in most of the older books in rhetoric; for a bibliography see Gertrude Buck's Figures of Rhetoric: A Psychological Study, in |