130 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL CHAt. 



the mouth at all, the pronunciation being effected almost 

 wholly by the tongue and teeth. Even when new words 

 are invented they follow the same rule, as in Swift's 

 " Brobdingnag " and " Lilliput ; " while the languages of 

 uncivilized peoples are usually, as regards these words, 

 equally characteristic. Though usually limiting my 

 illustrations to our own language, I will here give the 

 words for great and small in several of the languages of 

 the Malay Archipelago ; thus — lusar, hagut^ hakd, Immi, 

 ilahe, maiiia, all with broad open-mouthed vowel-sounds, 

 mean great or large ; while kichil, chili, Jcidi, hoi, roit, kcmi, 

 anan,fek, didih',Si\\ meaning small in the same languages, 

 are in every case pronounced inside the mouth, and with 

 but slightly parted lips. 



Even more expressive are the words by which we 

 indicate power or effort, such as might, strive, strenuous, 

 struggle, laborious, strong, strength — this last being one of 

 the most remarkably expressive in the language, con- 

 sisting, as it does, of no less than seven consonants and 

 only one vowel, all the consonants being full}^ and 

 distinctly sounded. To pronounce this word clearly and 

 emphatically requires a considerable effort, and we thus 

 seem to be exerting the very quality it is used to express. 

 How different are the words of opposite meaning, such as 

 weak, weary, languish, faint, which can all be spoken with 

 the minimum of effort, and with a hardly perceptible 

 motion of the lips ; and the same contrast is found in the 

 common adjectives, difficult and easy. 



How much the natural expressiveness of words adds 

 to the beauty of descriptive poetry may be seen every- 

 where. In Pope's well-known lines — 



"When Ajax strives some rock's huge weight to throw, 

 The line too labours and the words move slow," 



the very nature of the words which are of necessity 

 employed, produces that effect of appropriateness which 

 we are apt to think is due wholly to the skill of the poet. 

 In another couplet from the same poem — 



" A needless alexandrine ends the song, 

 And like a wounded snake drags its slow length along, 



i 



