, 1873-11-09


ridge Is said to havo considered the eublimoat in
Of man, tan those bones liyo 2 And answered,
o Lord God, thou knowost, ,"-~containB seventeen:
monosyNablea to tt1oo others. What passage in
HolyWrts tsurpaaaoain onorgottcbravlty that which
dosorbos tho death OF siaera -" At her feet he
bowed, he fell at her feet he bowel, ho fell. ho
lay down where 1le bowed, there ho foil down
dead? ?" Hero arc twenty-five monosyllahlos, to
one dissylIab]o thrice repeated, and that word
which is usnally pronounced as monosyllable.
Tho early writer's, tho "puro wells Of English
nndefllod," abound In small words. Shakespeare
employs thom In Ills finest passages, especially
when ho would paint accue with few mastery
touches. uoar Macbeth;
uoro lay Duncan.
~ , 'geF h .s .s1 'aesa ssi "Ith h., Koaan blood
ateopod in tho oolors u tner trado. thois dagger.
Bnmanner)y brccchod With gorc
Arc monosy1lableH pasBonless? Listen again,
to tho "Tbane Of Camdor;"
On rhieh must 1sll 1oTn. of sei elso o'cflesp
ct ct not III Iaht IT. seo ny blasF Id dssp dssrss
9he eye Wiukn at tho hand. Yet, lot that bo
Which tho eye fears, when 1. 1s donu, to SEQ.
Two dlssyilabcs only among Afty-two wordsi
Bishop Hall. in ONO OF his most powerful
satiros, speaking OF the vtnity Of adding house
to house aud feld to field" las these besutiful
IuoB:
Fond fooil sIx feet ahall serve for all thy store
And 10 that eares fur most shall find no moro.
What harmonious monosyllabless II exolaimh
tho critic, Clifford; got they rnay be paralleled
by others in tho same Writor, equally musical
and equally expressive.
Was Milton tame7 He know when to use
po1ysyllablea Of =" learned longth and thunder
ing sound !" but he know also when to produce
tho graudost effects by tho small words deapisod
by inferior artists. Read his account Of the
journey Of the fallen angels:
Through many dark and dreary va1e
. 'cr many frozen, many a iery Np,
Roeks sarss, lakes, ts, 1ogs, ds''s; aud shades d
dtafh,-
i univorRe Of death. '''
In what other language shall NO find IN thu
same number Of words more vivid picture ot
desolation than this Hear, again, the lost
Ayehapge' calling upon hell to roceire its nor
possesHor:
mind not 70 be changed by place Or time.
Din Inaio Heaven q Ioi heii ii Of t'i,e heaven.
what to"a b. al II but iess thsn ho
W. Mhoin thunder hath made greater2 Here, at least
Hers for 1Iis envy viii not drive Us hence:
nere we navy reign SECURE, and, in my choice,
10 f0feA 10 worth anOtt10n though In he'll
Better reign In hell, than serve III heaven.
Did Byron laok force or tlre? Liaten to tht
words in which lo dascriboB the destruction oa
8onnaollerib
For the Angel Of Death spread his wings on the last
AND breathed n tho faco of tho foo rs ho passcd;
And the eyes OF tho slcopots wsxd deadly nnd chtt
Aud their hearts boat but oucs, and forever lay B
Hero, out Of forty-thrco words,. all but thre&
hre monoayllabloB; and yot how oxquiBitely are
all these monosyllab1es linked into the majestic
and animated movement Of tho anapaestio
measure! Again, what can be moro muaical and
moro melancholy than the opening verse Of the
lines in which tho aamo poet bids adiau to BIZ
native land2 d. -.
Adeui alcu my nativo shoro
EAdaA DER Tho waters blue,
And shriois tho 's1; Wild ser sea.n,ow. sss1.7 ''~''
The third and fourth Inca paint the aosne tt
the life; yot all tho worda but ono are mono
syl1ablos.
Goldsmith said Of Dr.. johnson, that II ho wors
to write fable about little ashes, ho would
mako thom talk like whales. There are many
writera in our own day who ha7o m equal con-
tompt for small words, and never use ono when
they can find pompous polysyllablo to take its
place. It Is evident, however, from the passages
no have cited, that these uliputiana-t -these Tom
Thumbs OF tho diotionary-play as important a
part in our literature aa their bigger and more
magniloquent brothron. Iu Homo kinda Of
writing their almost exclusive uso is in-
dispensablo What would hare been tho
fato Of Bunyan's immortal book had,
he told tho story Of the Pilgrims journey,
In tho pondorous, elephantlne "-oaities F." and
"-ations Of johnson, or tho gorgeous Latin.
Hy OF Taylor7 It would have beon like build.
tng boat out Of timbers cut ont for ahip.
Whom we remember that tho Saxon Language,
the aoul Of the English, is essentially monosyln.
bio that our language contains, OF monosy11a.
bios formed by tho vowel a alone, more than
5o0.-by the vowel g, soma $50 by the vowel t,
about 400; by tho vowel 0, over 400;
and by the vowel II, moro than $50;
We must admit TINT these seemingly petty
and insignificant words, oven tho microscopic
PARTICLES, 40 far from moriting to bo treated as
"creepers," arc Of high importance, and that tc
know when aud how to use them Is even OF
greater moment to tho speaker or writer than
to know: whom to use tho grandi1oquent oxpres.
aions which We hnye borrowed from tho language
of Greece and Rome. To orery man who ha4
occasion to teach or move his feilow~non b,
tongue or pen, wo wouldaay in the words Of the
accomplished DR.. Addison Alexander. -them-
solves . most happy example OF tho thing he
commends:
Think not that strength lies In tho big round word
Or that TITO brief and plain must nceds bs weak,
To whom can this bo true who oucc has heard
When want wi 70 or VOC WOO Or RI fcar i in the throat,
80 that each word g1spod out il hke shrek
which tiss II stretched loo fur or apun too ane,
Which 3 has % more height than breadth, more depth
Let pat III. foscs Of thought and speech ba mine,
1e % sn g ssas ssa hsa Fl Il sss .a