194 ^-^^ POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Words are not merely the indications of feeling, but they may also 

 react upon our feelings, modify them, in some cases even produce new 

 groups of emotions. 



If the emotions are a desirable and essential element of the human 

 mind, and if language can thus react upon our emotional nature, the 

 expression of these desirable emotions ought not to be neglected, but 

 even positively cultivated. If we compare the German language with 

 the English, we are struck by the poverty of the latter as regards the 

 expression of emotions, and especially of those indicating contentment. 



The wealth of the German language in expressions of feeling and 

 general moods admits of no doubt. In what language do we meet with 

 such a wealth of words expressing mental pain, from the most marked 

 shadings down to the finest, until pain gently overlaps into pleasure ? 

 Let us attempt an incomplete enumeration of such expressions, omit- 

 ting the numerous foreign words (such as Melancholic, Apathie, Misere, 

 Agonie, Tortur, etc.), which have been embodied in German idiom: 

 Verzweiflung, Marter, Pein, Jammer (Herzensjammer), Elend, Gram, 

 Kummer, Leid (Herzeleid), Herzensnoth, Herzensangst, Bangen, Trauer, 

 Harm, Betriibniss, Triibsal, Trilbsinn, Ungluck, Schmerz, Weh, Unlust, 

 Schmachten, Hinschmachten, Hiudarben, Vergehen, HinbrUten, Schwer- 

 mutb, Wehmuth, Sehnsucht, Sehnen, Driingen, etc. Besides these there 

 are numerous expressive compounds. 



Now, it is true that the German, as well as every language, is richer 

 in words expressive of grief than of joy ; and this is a characteristic 

 common to all language, because it springs from psychological facts 

 common to all men. We do not so readily express our joy as our grief, 

 because, in the first place, grief is more dignified than joy. We do not 

 like to show our joy, because it is easily unbridled, and the boundless 

 is less comely than the bounded. Joy is elation, which implies opposi- 

 tion to the usual fetters and to form ; while grief is a contraction, which 

 implies a closer sinking into form, and seeks the plastic. The facial 

 expression of joy and grief corresponds to this — nay, perhaps was a 

 cause in determining our inclination or repugnance as regards the ex- 

 pression of these emotions. Joy manifests itself in an expansion of the 

 facial muscles, and avoids the eye of the sculptor who wishes to render 

 a beautiful harmonious display of features. The sinking and contrac- 

 tion of grief, on the other hand, bring out more markedly the fine 

 features and the modeling. Then, again, elation means motion and 

 unrest ; it points to restless difi'usion, while contraction must end, and 

 points to quiet and rest ; and therefore sculptors, to whom to a great 

 extent we owe the creation of the ideal of human beautj'^, rendered the 

 latter and shunned the former. 



In the second place, sympathy, if sought by the happy, is less sure 

 to be obtained ; for man has the evil tendencj'^ to envy, and, though it 

 is easy for him to feel the delight of compassion and pity, he is more 

 grudging with his sympathy with others' joy. He has also the ten- 



