THE VALUE OF SHORT WORDS.
WE all know how to talk, and there is a certain quota of words put on the tongue of every man just as the song is given to the canary bird or to the robin. But beyond the song these birds cannot go. And beyond the natural speech, or the words which nature gives to everyone, the illiterate human being cannot go. His vocabulary is limited until he becomes a student. Then it begins to widen, and there is no boundary line to its possibilities. The writer who imagines he can give additional emphasis to a composition by the use of large words is greatly mistaken. The economy of the reader's attention is absorbed in understanding and applying these big words, and there is little of the mental energy left with which to digest the idea which these long words contain. The picture which is brought before his mental vision is therefore dim and uncertain. If the writer would give more prominence to the idea and less to the verbal frame; in other words, if he would use simple language, which by contrast would bring out the idea, he would not only economize his reader's mental energy, but would benefit himself by making himself more easily understood. The mind is not able to do more than one thing at a time and do it well. It cannot delve into the mysteries of a many-syllabled word and comprehend the thought in a proper manner at once. Does the man say that he cannot write a book or an article with little words? Then he is very wrong. If he knew how many little words there are in the speech of this land he would not say that he cannot find those small words. And it may be that these small words have more force than the big words, because the soul of the tongue, or it would be more fit to say speech, is to be found in the short words more than in the long. In this all the men who write on words think as one. They feel that the very life of the thing is shown in the short word. There is no long word that will take the place of buzz, sour, roar, splash, acid, scrape, sough, whiz, bang, rough, smooth, keen, blunt, thin. Each of these words is like the thing which it sets forth, and so it is more strong and helps the brain in its work.—Exchange.