New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1877-01-14
nWoRns. WORDS. WORMS .

building, the average volume Is quite as
wordy as it was when Shakespeare created
and Hamlet moralized. While the literary
magician conjures with words to bring
out his miracles of art, and the poet looks
to them for rainbow tints wherewith to
paint his airy nothings, the triher and
pretender use them with parrot gibess,
and not unfrequently the pertness of the
one passes current as wit, and the en-
piricism of the other for profundity.
Contemporary popularity is no more
sign of the enduring qualities of literary
work than contemporary condemnation is
of it's utter worthlessness. Bunyan was
regarded by the men Of his time as o
crazy dreamer; Byron was laughed at by
the critics until, with whip of scorpions,
he dashed them into respectful admira-
ton, and even Shakespeare had to await
an aloes lifetime before his fame bios
somed into that earthly Immortality which
is now 80 fondly and SO universally con-
coded.
When books are found which 'age can
not wither nor custom stale" they are as
apples of gold in pictures of silver. Such
works are as rare as they are valuable.
They are not mere lexiconic labyrinths, in
which the readers find only WEAKNESS and
vexation of spirit, but verbal gardens of
golden fruitage, where refreshment waits
upon instruction, and knowledge upon
both.
There needs no argument to prove the
importance of words in the economies of
social and literary intercourse. To the
commerce of thought words furnish the
only currency. But pedants and critics
have SO run them into the ground and
then torn them up by the roots that in
many cases they no longer express a
definite idea. What matters it to us if
sOench, Gillian, and hundreds of others
words have now different meanings from
those which attached to them three CEN
turtles ago; we should use them in the &C.
cepted sense of to-day, without wasting
time in the proftless laber OF tracing out
their barbarous origin and their now
obsolete interpretations.
Our language, once considered too vul-
gar and incomplete for the learned Of
England to employ in their literary labors,
has, since the days of Chaucer, been sc
enriched that for it the ability is boosted
that it is now capable of expressing the
most delicate shades Of thought. If this
claim to copiousness and versatility of ex
preston be well founded, it is strange in,
deed that the wisest and most learned o.
our lawmakers are perpetually framing
statutes, as susceptible of different inter
pTetations as the riddles of an oracle Of
the representations of a soothsayer. Thii
uncertainty in the meaning of laws fur
nishes the outworks of that craft By
which lawyers have their wealth. Wher
they are capable Of so distorting languag,
as to make the worse appear the bette
reason, and in this manner defeat tn,
ends of justice, they build up a prosperit,
for themselves at the expense of socia
order and give to words meretricioul
quality before which common honest,
must stand abashed.
But if in the department of physic
and the formulas of legal lore the word
employed do not convey complete ant
definite expression, how much more ar
they at fault when used to explain tn
profound subtleties of metaphysical re
search. Suppose, for instance, we ask
What is geniusP De Quincy will answer
mind stepped and saturated in the genis
nature" Another win say, ut is fata
inspiration, akin to insanity, which, il
producing brilliant results, destroys it
own possessors. Others answer, sit i
impassioned truth thought become phos
phcrescent r Others again, ''It j
original imagination united with con
structive power. Still another, VIII,
thinks he knows more than al
the rest. tells us simply, "Genius i
groscih. and cries eureka ! as if he hat
discovered something wonderful. What
We again ask, was present before ID
growth commenced Was there not
something which BY growing becam
great? The divine frenzy which burst
forth into song is, according to our view
neither result Of culture nor Of growth
Il is original power, and whether It give
| light to the inner oopsciousness Of sucl
blind bards as Homer and Milton. casts
glow Of Bplendor upon the misty era
where Ozsian stands, swells the soul G
the plowboy Burns till it soars from tn
daisy beneath his feet into the oslessia
helds Of o sensuous paradise. o., with ID
infatuaiion 81 despair, carries the morbi
Poe into s'the ehouI.hauntod woodland
/ n Wis1.p Il still proves itself en- innas
force, deaant Of circumstance and holdiu
ID oonfempi the lrammels Of he schools
No matter how severe training he he
| Submitted 70. The youth who. vithou
genius, undertakes t. soar lark Ike. int
the hleheE xpalns 81 possy, Is ceriainl
doomed o disappointment Culture ma
sollan ard polish ehaf Ne already hal
hns oan net originate; i MAJ fashion
/ gihnf's Hrb. bus esd nat furnish he forl
ld 50 s fglAs DzfSa na
N'Ia ~ nrls s'l's tae lih aa1 3
taught ~ d
..st, lH a. lI rs.