OUR EXPRESSION

9. Our knowledge of language opens up a new world to us. We can communicate with those about us; we can open the storehouse of the knowledge of the past as recorded in books, or as two of our writers have expressed it:

Have you ever rightly considered what the mere ability to read means—that it is the key which admits to the world of thought and fancy and imagination—to the company of saint and sage, of the wisest and wittiest at their wisest and wittiest moments—that it enables us to see with the keenest eyes, hear with the finest ears and listen to the sweetest voices of all time?—Lowell.

Strip man of his books and his papers, and he becomes a mere slave, ignorant of his own resources, ignorant of his rights and opportunities. The difference between the free citizen of today and the savage of yesterday is almost entirely a thing of books. The man who dislikes books can never be entirely happy, and he who loves a good book can never be wholly miserable.—Hillis.

Have you never felt that struggle within and the sense of defeat when you have tried to make some one feel as you feel, understand as you understand, see some great truth as you see it, and could not find the words with which to express your ideas?

10. The mastery of words gives; first, the ability to understand the spoken or written thoughts of others; second, the ability to adequately express our own thoughts; and third, the ability to think clearly and to grow in our intellectual life.

A connected chain of reasoning is impossible without the knowledge of the words that express the development of the ideas and the varying shades of meaning. To gain this mastery, you must know the words of our language and their use. Words are the symbols of ideas and perform certain functions in expressing our thoughts. This, simply stated, is all that the study of English Grammar comprises—the study of English words and their use in the expression of thought and feeling.

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