INDEX

CENTURY VOCABULARY BUILDER

I

    Reasons for increasing your vocabulary

Sometimes a dexterous use of words appears to us to be only a kind of parlor trick.  And sometimes it is just that.  The command of a wide vocabulary is in truth an accomplishment, and like any other accomplishment it may be used for show.  But not necessarily.  Just as a man may have money without “flashing” it, or an extensive wardrobe without sporting gaudy neckties or wearing a dress suit in the morning, so may he possess linguistic resources without making a caddish exhibition of them.  Indeed the more distant he stands from verbal bankruptcy, the less likely he is to indulge in needless display.

Again, glibness of speech sometimes awakens our distrust.  We like actions rather than words; we prefer that character, personality, and kindly feelings should be their own mouthpiece.  So be it.  But there are thoughts and emotions properly to be shared with other people, yet incapable of being revealed except through language.  It is only when language is insincere—­when it expresses lofty sentiments or generous sympathies, yet springs from designing selfishness—­that it justly arouses misgivings.  Power over words, like power of any other sort, is for use, not abuse.  That it sometimes is abused must not mislead us into thinking that it should in itself be scorned or neglected.

Our contempt and distrust do not mean that our fundamental ideas about language are unsound.  Beneath our wholesome dislike for shallow facility and insincerity of speech, we have a conviction that the mastery of words is a good thing, not a bad.  We are therefore unwilling to take the vow of linguistic poverty.  If we lack the ability to bend words to our use, it is from laziness, not from scruple.  We desire to speak competently, but without affectation.  We know that if our diction rises to this dual standard, it silently distinguishes us from the sluggard, the weakling, and the upstart.  For such diction is not to be had on sudden notice, like a tailor-made suit.  Nor can it, like such a suit, deceive anybody as to our true status.  A man’s utterance reveals what he is.  It is the measure of his inward attainment.  The assertion has been made that for a man to express himself freely and well in his native language is the surest proof of his culture.  Meditate the saying.  Can you think of a proof that is surer?

But a man’s speech does more than lend him distinction.  It does more than reveal to others what manner of man he is.  It is an instrument as well as an index.  It is an agent—­oftentimes indeed it is the agent—­of his influence upon others.  How silly are those persons who oppose words to things, as if words were not things at all but air-born unrealities!  Words are among the