William Atkinson - The Essential Works of William Walker Atkinson - 50+ Books in One Edition

“Consider the lilies how they grow; they toll 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!”—LUKE xii: 27, 28.

Campbell, referring to the Parable just quoted, says:

“Let us here adopt a little of the tasteless manner of modern paraphrase by the substitution of more general terms, one of their many expedients of infrigidating, and let us observe the effect produced by this change: ‘Consider the flowers, how they continually 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 both 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!’” Hill, commenting on this well-known paraphrase, says: “In this paraphrase, the thought is expressed as clearly as in the original, and more exactly; but the comparison, in the original, between a common flower and the most magnificent of kings is much more impressive than any general statement can be; and the mind, without conscious exertion, understands that what is true of the lily as compared with Solomon is true of all flowers as compared with all men.”

In considering the element of force in the choice of words, we are compelled to take into account the forcible effect of the figures of speech of rhetoric, but we shall not mention them at this place as they will form the subject of a subsequent chapter.

The quality of suggestion in words adds materially to their force. Words whose sounds suggest their meaning are forceful for this reason. Hill says: “Force may be gained by the use of words of which the sound suggests the meaning. Such are words denoting sounds: whiz, roar, splash, thud, buzz, hubbub, murmur, hiss, rattle, boom; names taken from sounds: cuckoo, whip-poor-will, bumble-bee, humming bird, crag ; words so arranged that the sound expresses the meaning:

“* * * On a sudden open fly

With impetuous recoil and jarring sound

Th’ infernal doors, and on their hinges grate harsh thunder.”

“And the long carpets rose along the gusty floor.”

“On the ear

Drops the light drip of the suspended oar,

And chirps the grasshopper one good-night carol more.”

“Such are many interjections: heigh-ho! whew! hist! bang! ding-dong! pooh! hush! Such, too, are words derived from objects of the senses, but applied to mental phenomena because of a supposed resemblance or association of ideas: ‘a harsh temper,’ ‘ soft manner,’ ‘a sweet disposition,’ ‘ stormy passions,’ ‘a quick mind,’ ‘a sharp tongue.’ Such words, or combinations of words, have certain obvious advantages. They are not only specific, clear and forcible, but also so familiar that they may be accounted natural symbols rather than arbitrary signs; but they may be misused, as when chosen with an obvious effort, or because they sound well, rather than because they are peculiarly expressive. The safe course is, on the one hand, not to reject a word or phrase because its sound helps to communicate the meaning; on the other hand, not to strain after such expressions, lest, in the effort to grasp the shadow, the substance is lost.”

Notice the suggestive force of the following passage from Tennyson, the words of which impress upon one with an almost weird effect the silent old house, its dim uncanny reminiscent atmosphere of the past, its mysterious spirit of the by-gone presences which haunt the old scenes:

“All day within the dreary house

The doors upon their hinges creaked,

The blue fly sang in the pane, the mouse

Behind the mouldering wainscoat shrieked,

Or from the crevice peered about;

Old faces glimmered thro’ the doors,

Old footsteps trod the upper floors,

Old voices called her from without.”

The following quotations will also give the student an idea of the powerfully suggestive effective effect of words and arrangement of words. We give these examples for the purpose of enabling the student to grasp the actual effect of suggestive words and sentences, believing that the idea may be better grasped in this way than by the attempt to follow any arbitrary rule. It is most difficult to enunciate a rule in this case—example and imitation work the best results. Listening to the conversation of a strong speaker, or reading the speeches of the best orators, Will do more to form the idea of force in the mind of the student than would pages of arbitrary rules or general advice. Read the following quotations slowly and carefully, endeavoring to feel the suggestive force of the words, and in the associations called forth by the arrangement:

ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES.

“Over it rose the noisy belfry of the College, the square, brown tower of the church, and the slim, yellow spire of the parish meeting-house, by no means ungraceful, and then an invariable characteristic of New England religious architecture. On your right, the Charles slipped smoothly through green and purple salt meadows, darkened, here and there, with the blossoming black-grass as with a stranded cloud-shadow. Over these marshes, level as water, but without its glare, and with softer and more soothing gradations of perspective, the eye was carried to a horizon of softly-rounded hills. To your left hand, upon the Old Road, you saw some half-dozen dignified old houses of the colonial time, all comfortably fronting southward. If it were early June, the rows of horse-chestnuts along the fronts of these houses showed through every crevice of their dark heap of foliage, and on the end of every drooping limb, a cone of pearly flowers, while the hill behind was white or rosy with the crowding blooms of various fruit trees. There is no sound, unless a horseman clatters over the loose planks of the bridge, while his antipodal shadow glides silently over the mirrored bridge below.”—LOWELL: Cambridge Thirty Years Ago .

“There was in the court a peculiar silence somehow; and the scene remained long in Esmond’s memory:—the sky bright overhead; the buttresses of the building and the sun-dial casting shadow over the gilt memento mori inscribed underneath; the two dogs, a black greyhound and a spaniel nearly white, the one with his face up to the sun, and the other snuffing amongst the grass and stones, and my lord leaning over the fountain, which was bubbling audibly.

“How well all things were remembered! The ancient towers and gables of the ball darkling against the east, the purple shadows on the green slopes, the quaint devices and carvings of the dial, the forest-crowned heights, the fair, yellow plain cheerful with crops and corn, the shining river rolling through it towards the pearly hills beyond,—all these were before us, along with a thousand beautiful memories of our youth, beautiful and sad, but as real and vivid in our minds as that fair and always-remembered scene our eyes beheld once more.”—THACKERAY: Henry Esmond.

“It was an exquisite January morning in which there was no threat of rain, but a grey sky making the calmest back-ground for the charms of a mild winter scene:—the grassy borders of the lanes, the hedge-rows sprinkled with red berries and haunted with low twitterings, the purple bareness of the elms, the rich brown of the furrows.”—George Eliot: Daniel Deronda .

“So much describes the stuffy little room.

Vulgar, flat, smooth respectability: