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which you were created. It is for you to serve the world, to make it better, brighter, higher,
holier, grander, nobler, richer, for your having lived in it. This you can do in no matter what
position fortune has cast you, whether it be that of street laborer or president. Fight the good
fight and gain the victory.
"Above all, to thine own self be true,
And 'twill follow as the night the
day, Thou canst not then be false to any man."
CHAPTER XIII
CHOICE OF WORDS
Small Words Their Importance The Anglo-Saxon Element
In another place in this book advice has been given to never use a long word when a short one
will serve the same purpose. This advice is to be emphasized. Words of "learned length and
thundering sound" should be avoided on all possible occasions. They proclaim shallowness of
intellect and vanity of mind. The great purists, the masters of diction, the exemplars of style,
used short, simple words that all could understand; words about which there could be no
ambiguity as to meaning. It must be remembered that by our words we teach others; therefore,
a very great responsibility rests upon us in regard to the use of a right language. We must take
care that we think and speak in a way so clear that there may be no misapprehension or
danger of conveying wrong impressions by vague and misty ideas enunciated in terms which
are liable to be misunderstood by those whom we address. Words give a body or form to our
ideas, without which they are apt to be so foggy that we do not see where they are weak or
false. We must make the endeavor to employ such words as will put the idea we have in our
own mind into the mind of another. This is the greatest art in the world to clothe our ideas in
words clear and comprehensive to the intelligence of others. It is the art which the teacher, the
minister, the lawyer, the orator, the business man, must master if they would command
success in their various fields of endeavor. It is very hard to convey an idea to, and impress it
on, another when he has but a faint conception of the language in which the idea is expressed;
but it is impossible to convey it at all when the words in which it is clothed are unintelligible
to the listener.
If we address an audience of ordinary men and women in the English language, but use such
words as they cannot comprehend, we might as well speak to them in Coptic or Chinese, for
they will derive no benefit from our address, inasmuch as the ideas we wish to convey are
expressed in words which communicate no intelligent meaning to their minds.
Long words, learned words, words directly derived from other languages are only understood
by those who have had the advantages of an extended education. All have not had such
advantages. The great majority in this grand and glorious country of ours have to hustle for a
living from an early age. Though education is free, and compulsory also, very many never get
further than the "Three R's." These are the men with whom we have to deal most in the arena
of life, the men with the horny palms and the iron muscles, the men who build our houses,
construct our railroads, drive our street cars and trains, till our fields, harvest our crops in a
word, the men who form the foundation of all society, the men on whom the world depends to
make its wheels go round. The language of the colleges and universities is not for them and
they can get along very well without it; they have no need for it at all in their respective
callings. The plain, simple words of everyday life, to which the common people have been
used around their own firesides from childhood, are the words we must use in our dealings
with them.
Such words are understood by them and understood by the learned as well; why then not use
them universally and all the time? Why make a one-sided affair of language by using words
which only one class of the people, the so-called learned class, can understand? Would it not
be better to use, on all occasions, language which the both classes can understand? If we take
the trouble to investigate we shall find that the men who exerted the greatest sway over the
masses and the multitude as orators, lawyers, preachers and in other public capacities, were
men who used very simple language. Daniel Webster was among the greatest orators this
country has produced. He touched the hearts of senates and assemblages, of men and women
with the burning eloquence of his words. He never used a long word when he could convey
the same, or nearly the same, meaning with a short one. When he made a speech he always
told those who put it in form for the press to strike out every long word. Study his speeches,
go over all he ever said or wrote, and you will find that his language was always made up of
short, clear, strong terms, although at times, for the sake of sound and oratorical effect, he was
compelled to use a rather long word, but it was always against his inclination to do so, and
where was the man who could paint, with words, as Webster painted! He could picture things
in a way so clear that those who heard him felt that they had seen that of which he spoke.
Abraham Lincoln was another who stirred the souls of men, yet he was not an orator, not a
scholar; he did not write M.A. or Ph.D. after his name, or any other college degree, for he had
none. He graduated from the University of Hard Knocks, and he never forgot this severe Alma
Mater when he became President of the United States. He was just as plain, I just as humble,
as in the days when he split rails or plied a boat on the Sangamon. He did not use big words,
but he used the words of the people, and in such a way as to make them beautiful. His
Gettysburg address is an English classic, one of the great masterpieces of the language.
From the mere fact that a word is short it does not follow that it is always clear, but it is true
that nearly all clear words are short, and that most of the long words, especially those which
we get from other languages, are misunderstood to a great extent by the ordinary rank and file
of the people. Indeed, it is to be doubted if some of the "scholars" using them, fully
understand their import on occasions. A great many such words admit of several
interpretations. A word has to be in use a great deal before people get thoroughly familiar
with its meaning. Long words, not alone obscure thought and make the ideas hazy, but at
times they tend to mix up things in such a way that positively harmful results follow from
their use.
For instance, crime can be so covered with the folds of long words as to give it a different
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