The order of steps in en

evident to any one upon reflection. larging one's vocabulary is to add words to 4 by reading and the use of the dictionary; to transfer words from 4 to 3 by introducing them deliberately in the revision of written composition as occasion may arise, and to repeat such use until the word comes naturally to the pen. Then, and not until then, will a new word come naturally to the tongue in formal speaking (2); and later, or not at all, according to the nature of it, will make its way into familiar talk (1).

There are two points, then, at which the increase of vocabulary is wholly within our deliberate control: the addition of words to 4 from without, and the transfer of words from 4 to 3 in the revision of written work. At a third point deliberate transfer is possible within narrow limits, the uttering for the first time in formal speaking (2) of a word already used several times in writing. For formal speaking requires a certain degree of self-consciousness, an attention to what one is saying and how one is saying it, so that the slight hesitation or shyness inseparable from the use of new words is not serious. Still, this transfer from the writing to the speaking vocabulary most often comes about automatically. A man has written adequate in his themes and notebooks for a month or two, whenever it happened to be a better word than enough or sufficient. Some day it slips off his tongue before he knows it, in some such phrase as "adequate conception." The thing is done; he blushes, and perhaps some waggish classmate grins, or whistles under his breath. The blushes and the grins are soon over, but adequate is his to the end of his days. He has bought it and paid for it, and it belongs to him. It has been transferred from one part of his brain to another, from the book-words to the talk-words. It is no longer a liability but an asset: not a debt he owes to the dictionary, but a credit balance on which he can draw when he chooses.

Evidently therefore the solution of the whole problem lies in using new words in that kind of writing and speaking which

Just as the scientific

demands the widest range of expression. student soon finds himself using technical terms freely in ordinary talk, so any student will find himself master of new verbs and adjectives and abstract nouns every month if he slips them in first when he is writing themes, with nobody looking on. A fear of what people will say need not then deter him, as it will if he tries to introduce new words first into his talking. Men rightly distrust artificial or affected conversation. It is a healthy instinct that leads young people to smile at one who is "showing off" his new dictionary words in somebody's parlor. As has been pointed out in Chapter XI, colloquial English naturally avoids hundreds of standard English words, and purposely seeks direct, homely, racy modes of expression. On the other hand, it is an irrational and stupid tradition of young people that would restrict the total speaking vocabulary to the colloquial range: reducing vocabulary 2 to the diameter of vocabulary 1. The recitation, the classroom report or dissertation or criticism, and particularly the debate, are the college student's opportunities to acquire the full speaking vocabulary of the educated world; opportunities which he will never again have presented to him with so little embarrassment and so generous encouragement in the exercise of them. The whole trend of modern psychology and education confirms the contention here made, that ideas are not truly ideas until they are put into words; and that words are not truly words while they remain black marks in print, but become such in the fullest sense when they are first pen-strokes on paper and then voice-sounds in speech. Nothing is really ours until we use it.

The best popular book on word-history for collateral reading is Words and Their Ways in English Speech, by Greenough and Kittredge. The best essay on the enlargement of vocabulary is Self-Cultivation in English, by George Herbert Palmer. This latter book should be read by every student. Upon the basis of it an essay may be written, expressing the student's honest personal opinion concerning the importance of increasing

his command of words, and the practicability of Professor Palmer's suggestions. Another useful exercise would be to go through any piece of good English prose, such as Professor Palmer's essay itself, writing down every word which the student is aware he never uses either in speaking or in writing. Such a

list, if added to from time to time, would give a suitable beginning for the enlargement of one's writing vocabulary in future composition work.

The principal thing to note about this chapter on words is that, unlike the rest of the book, it is only the beginning of a kind of self-cultivation which cannot be finished in one year or four, but will go on as long as the mind continues to grow.

CHAPTER XIV

TRANSLATION

Nec verbum verbo curabis reddere fidus

Interpres.- HORACE.

If you are a good translator, you will not take any particular care to render word for word.

ONE of the best means of increasing our command of words is translation. As a classroom test to discover whether students have learned their lesson, translation has little to do with English style. Ordinarily all that either teacher or pupil can look out for in the English version is correct grammatical construction. So far as the choice of words is concerned, good teachers insist that a Latin or a French word shall not as a rule be rendered by an English word derived from it, but beyond that point they are forced to pass over many verbal infelicities and halting sentences lacking in euphony and rhythm. Little attention is ordinarily paid to the connotation of English words as a guide in the selection of equivalents for foreign phrases. Indeed, limitations of time make it impossible for teachers of foreign languages to go far beyond the point at which it becomes evident that the student has grasped the thought of the original. To criticise and revise each oral translation on the basis of English diction would make rapid progress impossible. Written translation, on the other hand, prepared not as a hurried classroom test, but as an outside assignment, ought to be made an exercise in English as well as in Latin, or French, or German. Careful teachers so regard it, and are among the best allies of the teacher of English. At this point in our study of words an exercise in careful written

translation will illustrate the complexity of this art of carrying a thought over from one language to another.

On the following pages will be found specimen passages of Latin, French, and German prose. From these each student should choose one, in the language he knows best; or, at the discretion of the instructor, a passage may be chosen from a text which freshmen are reading in a language course. In the latter case, a copy of the original passage must accompany the translation. Of the selection which may be decided on each student is to make the best possible rendering into literary English. The first step, of course, is to master the original with dictionary and grammar. If the selections in the book prove to be too difficult, this preliminary labor of discovering the general meaning may be shortened by hints given in the classroom; for the task is one not in foreign grammar but in English rhetoric. The second step is to consider, especially in the Latin and the German, how far the sentences of the original shall be divided, phrases made into clauses, epithets into phrases. A preliminary version is then written out, with the best words that occur to the mind at the time. The most important part of the work remains, a revision for better diction and better sentence form. It will help if the writer keeps in mind to guide him the style of some English writer with whose works he is familiar. No direct imitation will be possible, because of the difference of subject; but a certain echo of Addison, or Macaulay, or Ruskin, or Stevenson, will add vigor and symmetry to the final effect. The student is to bear in mind constantly during revision that he is to make his version sound as much as possible like a passage originally written in English by a skillful writer. He will not accomplish this, but he is to try for it. A comparison in the classroom of several of the best versions turned in by students will bring out many kinds of word-values which could hardly be illustrated in original composition.

Translations of poetry are not recommended at this stage of