And when we have done with our life-lasting toys,
Dear Father, take care of Thy children, the BOYS!

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Oliver Wendell Holmes.

EXERCISES

I. By oral discussion, determine the opinion of pupils as to which form of address makes the more artistic appearance when printed, a full or an abbreviated form.

II. Let pupils each take one number of a reputable magazine to examine and to report upon in class in written list, as to all abbreviations used. Odd numbers of any well-printed publications may be used if magazines cannot be had.

III. Let pupils each examine one carefully printed book, to ascertain whether abbreviations are actually used there, and, if so, to what extent: reports upon this to be oral or written, at discretion of teacher.

IV. Determine by discussion and vote the opinion of the class as to the propriety of using in newspaper headlines abbreviations which would not be allowed in a first-class magazine.

Full knee-deep lies the winter snow,

And the winter winds are wearily sighing:
Toll ye the church-bell sad and slow,

And tread softly and speak low,

For the old year lies a-dying.

Old year, you must not die;

You came to us so readily,
You lived with us so steadily,

Old year, you shall not die.

From "The Death of the Old Year," by Alfred Tennyson,

CHAPTER XV

PICTURE WORDS AND WORD PICTURES

Today you may begin to think about the pictures in words Shut your eyes after reading each of the following expressions and try to decide at what point you obtain a clear mind picture of some one object.

A flower

A blue flower

A small blue flower

A small, blue spring flower

A

?

Can you guess what flower I have in mind?

The word violet is upon some lips, and anemone and hepatica upon others. If I had added the word fragrant, perhaps of would have guessed the blue English violet, whose least tiny blossom proclaims its own presence as loudly as if it spoke.

some you

Try to form a mind picture for the following group of

words:

A gorgeous, stately, nodding, speckled flower, found wild and also in cultivation.

Country children have the advantage here, and some of them will think at once of the tiger lily. If I had said instead, A stiff, stately, scarlet July flower, they might have guessed the meadow lily, which on our Western prairies weaves thick, soft carpets for cloud shadows to walk upon. If, instead of

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wild lilies, I had named a trolley car, it would have been the city children who would at once have had the clearer mind pictures. Any picture word may call up to you all that you have ever known in connection with that word. If, besides remembering the object, you also see a clear mind picture of the thing itself, you possess within your own mind a source of much pleasure, in the recalling of familiar scenes and faces.

Observe that the same word brings different pictures to different persons. The same group of words meant violet, anemone, or hepatica, according to your different mind pictures. So, too, the word home means to each of you a different place and a different mind picture.

The more special, or specific, a term is, the clearer mind picture it will bring. That is to say, special terms are better picture words than general terms. Thus violet, rose, pansy, each gives you a more distinct picture than flower.

By a simple diagram you can see how each added descriptive term limited, or confined, your thought to a smaller class than before, while your pictures grew at the same time more and more distinct. The diagram can be arranged in many ways, according as you consider one or another point first in order.

A B C D E

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Thus, we may suppose that A includes all flowers; B includes all blue flowers; C includes all small blue flowers; D includes all small, blue, spring flowers; E includes all small, blue, spring violets.

Here is another way of picturing to the eye the smaller classes included in a larger class:

and

If the circle A includes all lilies, we may suppose that B, C, D, E represent variously tiger lilies, lemon lilies, meadow lilies, and lilies of the valley. What lilies are here excluded from the small circles?

You may notice that while the word flower includes more objects, it means much less than the word violet. In other words, while flower has greater extent, violet has greater content, or meaning. The word violet means even more than the picture phrase, small, blue, spring flower, which also indicates similar flowers. I hope you see by this how much more one picture word may often mean than another apparently more important in itself.

Observe the following expressions, which might also be

diagramed:

A little red schoolhouse.

A white, vine-covered cottage.

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A tall, graceful, fragrant yellow lily.
A low, delicate, fragrant white lily.

Please to name to yourself here every class of house, cottage, and lily excluded by the successive descriptive words.

In carrying our thoughts to other people, and in receiving thoughts from them, we constantly use word pictures. To be able to make others see things as we see them, we need to become painters in words. For language is as full of color as an artist's palette, if one but learn to use the brush.

For practice in the use of words that may help you make pictures, I give you many names for which you are to find suitable descriptive terms. In doing this you may seek help anywhere and every where, after you have first called up out of your own mind all the suitable words that you can find there. In this work it will help you to study carefully the features of people and things around you, and to observe what descriptive terms occur in your readers and other books. To use striking and original expressions is very desirable, in case these are appropriate.

Thus Longfellow says:

Maiden with the meek brown eyes.
She has two eyes so soft and brown.

With those deep and tender eyes.

With merry-making eyes and jocund smile.

Your manner of using descriptive words will go far toward determining the style of your writing. To excel in this use is to become an artist in words. Now no one becomes an artist without much careful practice; but even practice grows at last enjoyable, as one gradually gains skill.