"Bobolink, chickadee, blackbird and jay,
Thrasher and woodpecker, cuckoo and wren,
Each sings its word, or its phrase, and then
It has nothing further to sing or say.
"Into that word, or that sweet little phrase,
All there may be of its life must crowd;
And low and liquid, or hoarse and loud,
It breathes its burden of joy and praise.
"A little child sits in his father's door,

Chatting and singing with careless tongue;
A thousand musical words are sung,
And he holds unuttered a thousand more.

"Words measure power; and they measure thine;
Greater art thou in thy childish years

Than all the birds of a hundred spheres ;
They are brutes only, but thou art divine.

"Words measure destiny. Power to declare
Infinite ranges of passion and thought
Holds with the infinite only its lot-
Is of eternity only the heir.

"Words measure life, and they measure its joy,
Thou hast more joy in thy childish years

Than the birds of a hundred tuneful spheres,
So-sing with the beautiful birds, my boy!"

But notwithstanding the value of words, it should be remembered that it is only intellect and emotion that make them valuable. "Language," as Professor Goldwin Smith forcibly says, "is not a musical instrument into which, if a fool breathes, it will make melody."

49. Summary of Directions.-The directions to be observed in the use of words may be summed up as follows: Employ words of the English language, rejecting foreign words except as quotations, or when more expressive than native words, accompanying them by a translation if they are liable to be not understood;

SUMMARY OF DIRECTIONS.

73

avoid obsolete words, new terms, and a profusion of technical terms, except when treating upon the subjects to which they especially apply, and then use them accurately; avoid vulgarisms, catch-words, provincialisms, unless the nature of your composition justifies them; use no words unnecessarily, especially in different shades of meaning; study to obtain as extensive a vocabulary as your thoughts require, and always to use the best words in their proper places.

Let no one suppose that too much attention has been given to this subject. Words are the vehicle of thoughts. They indicate both the intellectual and the moral character. The surest proof of scholarship, of discipline, of strong thought, is the right use of words.

D

PART II.

FIGURES OF SPEECH AND THOUGHT.

We are still considering the material which is employed to convey thought and feeling. It will be ascertained that the first and true meaning of words by no means exhausts this power when in actual use. Figures of speech embrace a valuable part of Rhetoric, and will amply repay careful analysis and methodical examination.