The
reasons which we have given for preferring short words evidently
do not hold here. So that to make our generalization quite correct
we must say, that while in certain sentences expressing strong feeling,
the word which more especially implies that feeling may often with
advantage be a many-syllabled or Latin one; in the immense majority
of cases, each word serving but as a step to the idea embodied
by the whole sentence, should, if possible, be a one-syllabled or
Saxon one.
8. Once more, that frequent cause of strength in Saxon and
other primitive words-their imitative character may be similarly
resolved into the more general cause. Both those directly imitative,
as _splash, bang, whiz, roar,_ &c., and those analogically imitative,
as _rough, smooth, keen, blunt, thin,_ hard, crag,_ &c., have a
greater or less likeness to the things symbolized; and by making
on the senses impressions allied to the ideas to be called up, they
save part of the effort needed to call up such ideas, and leave
more attention for the ideas themselves.
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