Should we, in the world's riper years, ——
God's ancient sanctuaries, and adore
Only among the crowd.
A fixed figure, for the hand of ——
To point his slow unmoving finger at.
NEW (page 252).
QUESTIONS.
1. What is the meaning of new? of modern? of recent? 2. How does recent compare with new? 3. What is the meaning of novel? of fresh? 4. To what do young and youthful distinctively apply?
NIMBLE (page 253).
QUESTIONS.
1. To what does nimble properly refer? 2. To what does swift apply? 3. How does alert compare with nimble? For what is alert more properly a synonym?
EXAMPLES.
Dumb jewels often, in their silent kind,
More —— than words, do move a woman's mind.
Profound thinkers are often helpless in society, while shallow men have —— and ready minds.
NORMAL (page 253).
QUESTIONS.
1. What does natural signify? normal? Give instances of the distinctive use of the two words. 2. What does typical signify? regular? common?
EXAMPLES.
He does it with a better grace, but I do it more ——.
The —— round of work may grow monotonous, but it is evidently necessary.
NOTWITHSTANDING (page 254).
QUESTIONS.
1. What is the signification of however as a conjunction? of nevertheless? 2. Which is the most emphatic word of the group and what does it signify? 3. How do yet and still compare with notwithstanding? with but? 4. What is the force of tho and altho? 5. How does notwithstanding as a preposition differ from despite or in spite of?
EXAMPLES.
My love shall in my verse ever live young.
—— till all graces be in one woman, one woman shall not come in my grace.
There was an immense crowd —— the inclement weather.
OATH (page 254).
QUESTIONS.
1. What is an oath? an affidavit? How does the affidavit differ from the oath? 2. What is an adjuration? 3. What is a vow? How does it differ from an oath? 4. Of what words is oath a popular synonym? 5. In what do anathema,[471] curse, execration, and imprecation agree? 6. What is an anathema? 7. Is a curse just or unjust? 8. What does execration express? imprecation?
EXAMPLES.
Better is it that thou shouldest not ——, than that thou shouldest —— and not pay.
To break an —— he never made?
OBSCURE (page 255).
QUESTIONS.
1. What is obscure? 2. How does obscure compare with complicated? with complex? with abstruse? with profound?
OBSOLETE (page 256).
QUESTIONS.
1. When is a word obsolete? When is a word archaic? 2. Is an old or ancient word necessarily obsolete? 3. What is meant by saying that a word is rare? 4. Is a rare word necessarily obsolete or an obsolete word necessarily rare?
EXAMPLES.
When the labors of modern philologists began, Sanscrit was the most —— of all the Aryan languages known to them.
Was so exceeding tall and strong,
He bore the skies upon his back,
Just as the pedler does his pack.
It is wonderful that so few —— words are found in Shakespeare after the lapse of three centuries.
OBSTINATE (page 256).
QUESTIONS.
1. How does headstrong differ from obstinate and stubborn? 2. How do obstinate and stubborn differ from each other? Which is commonly applied to the inferior animals and to inanimate things? 3. What is the meaning of refractory? How does it differ from stubborn? Which word is applied to metals, and in what sense? 4. What is the meaning of obdurate? contumacious? pertinacious? 5. What words do we apply to the unyielding character or conduct that we approve?
EXAMPLES.
To bear too tender, or too —— a heart,
To act a Lover's or a Roman's part?
"I shall talk of what I like," she said wilfully, clasping her hands round her knees with the gesture of an —— child.
OBSTRUCT (page 257).
QUESTIONS.
1. What is the literal meaning of obstruct? How does it compare with hinder? 2. How does obstruct compare with impede? 3. What does arrest signify in the sense here considered?
EXAMPLES.
There is a certain wisdom of humanity which is common to the greatest men with the lowest, and which our ordinary education often labors to silence and ——.
That round and round still turns with onward might.
OLD (page 257).
QUESTIONS.
1. What does old signify? 2. How do old and ancient compare? 3. What contrasted senses has old? 4. What is the special force of olden? 5. In what sense are gray, hoary, and olden used of material objects? 6. To what is aged chiefly applied? 7. To what do decrepit, gray, and hoary apply, as said of human beings? 8. To what does senile apply? 9. In what sense is elderly used? 10. What are the primary and derived meanings of remote? 11. What does venerable express?
EXAMPLES.
Rock-ribbed and —— as the sun,—the vales
Stretching in pensive quietness between;
The —— woods, ...
... and, poured round all,
—— ocean's gray and melancholy waste,—
Are but the solemn decorations all
Of the great tomb of man.
The —— patriarch guileless held
The tenor of his way.
O good —— head which all men knew!
Strike deeper their vile root, and closer cling,
Still more enamored of their wretched soil?
OPERATION (page 258).
QUESTIONS.
1. What does operation denote? and by what kind of agent is it effected? 2. What do performance and execution denote? and by what kind of agents are they effected? 3. How does performance differ from execution?
EXAMPLES.
It requires a surgical —— to get a joke well into a Scotch understanding.
But his ——, as he is now, nothing.
ORDER (page 258).
QUESTIONS.
1. What does instruction imply? direction? 2. How does order compare with direction? 3. To what classes of persons are orders especially given? How does an order in the commercial sense become authoritative? 4. How does command compare with order? 5. In what sense is requirement used? By what authority is a requirement made? 6. In what sense is prohibition used? injunction?
EXAMPLES.
General Sherman writes in his Memoirs, "I have never in my life questioned or disobeyed an ——."
That God's —— forgot, she plucked and ate.
OSTENTATION (page 259).
QUESTIONS.
1. What is ostentation? How does it compare with boasting? display? show? 2. What is pomp? pageant or pageantry? What do the two latter words suggest, and how do they compare with pomp? 3. From what is parade derived? What is its primary meaning? With what implication is it always used in the metaphorical sense? How does parade compare with ostentation?
EXAMPLES.
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave.
Await alike the inevitable hour;
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
The President's salary does not permit ——, nor, indeed, is —— expected of him.
With all his wealth, talent, and learning, he was singularly free from ——.
OVERSIGHT (page 260).
QUESTIONS.
1. In what two contrasted senses is oversight used? 2. How does superintendence compare with oversight? 3. With what special reference is control used? 4. What kind of a term is surveillance, and what does it imply?
EXAMPLES.
Those able to conduct great enterprises must be allowed wages of ——.
O Friendship, equal poised ——!
Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the —— thereof not by constraint, but willingly.
OUGHT (page 260).
QUESTIONS.
1. What does ought properly signify? 2. How does ought compare with should? 3. In what secondary sense is ought sometimes used?[474]
EXAMPLES.
He has not a right to do what he likes, but only what he —— with his own, which after all is his own only in a qualified sense.
Age —— have reverence, and —— be worthy to have it.
PAIN (page 261).
QUESTIONS.
1. What is pain? suffering? 2. How does distress rank as compared with pain and suffering? 3. What is an ache? a throe? a paroxysm? 4. What is agony? anguish?
EXAMPLES.
Condemned alike to groan;
The tender for another's ——,
The unfeeling for his own.
That age, ——, penury, and imprisonment
Can lay on nature.
PALLIATE (page 261).
QUESTIONS.
1. How do cloak and palliate agree in original meaning? How do they differ in the derived senses? 2. What is it to extenuate, and how does that word compare with palliate?
EXAMPLES.
Nor aught set down in malice.
We would not dissemble nor —— [our transgressions] before the face of Almighty God, our heavenly Father.
I shall never attempt to —— my own foibles by exposing the error of another.
PARDON, v. (page 262).
QUESTIONS.
1. What is it to pardon? 2. To what does forgive refer? 3. How do pardon and forgive differ in use in accordance with the difference in meaning? 4. What is it to remit? to condone? to excuse?
EXAMPLES.
And find a kind of license in the sound
To hate a little longer!
PARDON, n. (page 262).
QUESTIONS.
1. What is acquittal? How does it differ from pardon as regards the person acquitted or pardoned? 2. Is an innocent person ever pardoned? 3. What is oblivion? amnesty? absolution?
EXAMPLES.
Of the Eternal's language;—on earth it is called ——.
——, not wrath, is God's best attribute.
But they ne'er —— who have done the wrong.
PART, n. (page 264).
QUESTIONS.
1. What is a part? 2. What is a fragment? a piece? 3. What do division and fraction signify? 4. What is a portion? 5. What is a share? an instalment? a particle? 6. What do component, constituent, ingredient, and element signify? How do they differ from one another? 7. What is a subdivision?
EXAMPLES.
His little, nameless, unremembered acts
Of kindness and of love.
Vital in every —— ...
Can not but by annihilating die.
Many cheap houses were built to be sold by ——s.
PARTICLE (page 264).
QUESTIONS.
1. What is a particle? 2. What does atom etymologically signify? What is its meaning in present scientific use? 3. What is a molecule, and of what is it regarded as composed? 4. What is an element in chemistry?
EXAMPLES.
Lucretius held that the universe originated from a fortuitous concourse of ——s.
Unhurt amidst the war of ——s,
The wreck of matter and the crush of worlds.
Many aquatic animals, whose food consists of small —— diffused through the water, have an apparatus for creating currents so as to bring such —— within their reach.
PATIENCE (page 265).
QUESTIONS.
1. What is patience? 2. What is endurance? 3. How does patience compare with submission and endurance? 4. To what are submission and resignation[476] ordinarily applied? 5. What is forbearance? How does it compare with patience?
EXAMPLES.
Nor think it chance, nor murmur at the load,
For know what man calls Fortune is from God.
There is, however, a limit at which —— ceases to be a virtue.
PAY (page 266).
QUESTIONS.
1. What is pay? compensation? remuneration? recompense? 2. What is an allowance? 3. What are wages? earnings? 4. What is hire? what does it imply? 5. For what is salary paid? How does it differ from wages? 6. What is a fee, and for what given?
EXAMPLES.
I am not aware that ——, or even favors, however gracious, bind any man's soul.
Our praises are our ——.
Carey, in early life, was a country minister with a small ——.
Laborers are remunerated by ——, and officials by ——.
PEOPLE (page 266).
QUESTIONS.
1. What is a community? a commonwealth? 2. What is a people? a race? 3. What is a state? a nation? 4. What does population signify? tribe?
EXAMPLES.
A —— may let a king fall, and still remain a ——, but if a king let his —— slip from him, he is no longer a king.
Questions of —— have played a great part in the politics and wars of the latter half of the nineteenth century, the Germanic ——, the Slavonic ——, the Italian, and the Greek ——s struggling to assert their unity.
PERCEIVE (page 267).
QUESTIONS.
1. What class of things do we perceive? 2. How does apprehend differ in scope from perceive? 3. What does conceive signify? 4. How does comprehend compare with apprehend? with conceive?
EXAMPLES.
We may —— the tokens of the divine agency without being able to —— or —— the divine Being.
Thou shalt —— that thou wast blind before.
Can not —— nor name thee!
PERFECT (page 268).
QUESTIONS.
1. What is perfect in the fullest and highest sense? 2. What is absolute in the fullest sense? 3. What is perfect in the limited sense, and in popular language?
EXAMPLES.
We have the idea of a Being infinitely ——, and from this Descartes reasoned that such a being really exists.
Hear you this Triton of the minnows? mark you
His —— 'shall'?
PERMANENT (page 269).
QUESTIONS.
1. From what is durable derived? to what class of substances is it applied? 2. What is permanent, and in what connections used? 3. How does enduring compare with durable? with permanent?
EXAMPLES.
My heart is wax, molded as she pleases, but —— as marble to retain.
Forward, not ——, sweet, not ——,
The perfume and suppliance of a minute.
For her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the Lord, to eat sufficiently, and for —— clothing.
PERMISSION (page 269).
QUESTIONS.
1. What is authority? 2. What is permission? 3. How does permission compare with allowance? 4. What is a permit? 5. What is license? How does it compare with authority? with permission? 6. What does consent involve?
EXAMPLES.
Only by his ——.
When judges steal themselves.
Very few of the Egyptians avail themselves of the —— which their religion allows them, of having four wives.
PERNICIOUS (page 270).
QUESTIONS.
1. From what is pernicious derived, and what does it signify? 2. How does pernicious compare with injurious? 3. What does noisome denote? 4. What is the distinctive sense of noxious? 5. How does noxious compare with noisome?
EXAMPLES.
Inflaming wine, —— to mankind.
The strong smell of sulfur, and a choking sensation of the lungs indicated the presence of —— gases.
PERPLEXITY (page 270).
QUESTIONS.
1. What is perplexity? confusion? How do the two words compare? 2. How do bewilderment and confusion compare? 3. From what does amazement result?
EXAMPLES.
Caius.—Vere is mine host de Jarterre?
Host.—Here, master doctor, in —— and doubtful dilemma.
As, after some oration fairly spoke
By a beloved prince, there doth appear
Among the buzzing, pleased multitude.
PERSUADE (page 271).
QUESTIONS.
1. What does convince denote? How does it differ from the other words of the group? 2. What is it to persuade? 3. How is convincing related to persuasion? 4. How does coax compare with persuade?
EXAMPLES.
A long train of these practises has at length unwillingly —— me that there is something hid behind the throne greater than the king himself.
He had a head to contrive, a tongue to ——, and a hand to execute any mischief.
PERVERSE (page 272).
QUESTIONS.
1. What is the etymological meaning of perverse? What does it signify in common use? 2. What does petulant signify? wayward?
EXAMPLES.
To bear with their —— objections.
Whining, purblind, —— boy!
When, for so slight and frivolous a cause,
Such —— emulations shall arise.
PHYSICAL (page 272).
QUESTIONS.
1. What does material signify? 2. What idea does physical add to that contained in material? 3. To what do bodily, corporal, and corporeal apply? 4. How do bodily and corporal differ from corporeal? 5. To what is corporal now for the most part limited?[479]
EXAMPLES.
—— punishment is practically abandoned in the greater number of American schools.
Man has two parts, the one —— and earthly, the other immaterial and spiritual.
These races are all clearly differentiated by other —— traits than the color of the skin.
We can not think of substance save in terms that imply —— properties.
PITIFUL (page 273).
QUESTIONS.
1. What was the original meaning of pitiful? What does it now signify? 2. How does pitiful differ in use from pitiable? 3. What was the early and what is the present sense of piteous?
EXAMPLES.
There is something pleading and —— in the simplicity of perfect ignorance.
The most —— sight one ever sees is a young man doing nothing; the Furies early drag him to his doom.
O, the most —— cry of the poor souls!
PITY (page 273).
QUESTIONS.
1. What is pity? sympathy? 2. How does sympathy in its exercise differ from pity? 3. How does pity differ from mercy? 4. How does compassion compare with mercy and pity? 5. How does commiseration differ from compassion?
EXAMPLES.
Nothing but the Infinite —— is sufficient for the infinite pathos of human life.
And when his presence we no longer share,
Still leaves —— as a relic there.
PLEAD (page 274).
QUESTIONS.
1. What is it to plead in the ordinary sense? in the legal sense? 2. How do argue and advocate differ? 3. What do beseech, entreat, and implore imply? 4. How does solicit compare with the above words?
EXAMPLES.
Who art not missed by any that ——.
Speaking of the honor paid to good men, is it not time to —— for a reform in the writing of biographies?
PLEASANT (page 275).
QUESTIONS.
1. What does pleasant add to the sense of pleasing? 2. How does pleasant compare with kind? 3. What does good-natured signify? How does it compare with pleasant?
EXAMPLES.
About him, and lies down to —— dreams.
Men will believe because they love the lie.
Give me but one —— word to think upon.
PLENTIFUL (page 276).
QUESTIONS.
1. What kind of a term is enough, and what does it mean? 2. How does sufficient compare with enough? 3. What is ample? 4. To what do abundant, ample, liberal, and plentiful apply? 5. How is copious used? affluent? plentiful? 6. What does complete express? 7. In what sense are lavish and profuse employed? 8. To what is luxuriant applied?
EXAMPLES.
Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves
In drops of sorrow.
Can anybody remember when the right sort of men and the right sort of women were ——?
The gift doth stretch itself as 'tis received,
And is —— for both.
Of tenfold adamant, his —— shield.
POETRY (page 277).
QUESTIONS.
1. What is poetry? 2. Does poetry involve rime? Does it require meter? 3. What is imperatively required beyond verse, rime, or meter to constitute poetry?
EXAMPLES.
—— is rhythmical, imaginative language, expressing the invention, taste, thought, passion, and insight of a human soul.
Himself to sing, and build the lofty ——.
Lap me in soft Lydian airs,
Married to immortal ——.
POLITE (page 277).
QUESTIONS.
1. What are the characteristics of a civil person? What more is found in one who is polite? 2. How does courteous compare with civil? 3. What does courtly signify? genteel? urbane? 4. In what sense is polished used? complaisant?
EXAMPLES.
She is not —— for the sake of seeming ——, but —— for the sake of being kind.
He was so generally —— that nobody thanked him for it.
Her air, her manners, all who saw admired; —— tho coy, and gentle tho retired.
POVERTY (page 279).
QUESTIONS.
1. What does poverty strictly denote? What does it signify in ordinary use? 2. What does privation signify? How does it compare with distress? 3. What is indigence? destitution? penury? 4. What does pauperism properly signify? How does it differ from beggary and mendicancy?
POWER (page 279).
QUESTIONS.
1. What is power? 2. Is power limited to intelligent agents, or how widely applied? 3. How does ability compare with power? 4. What is capacity, and how related to power and to ability? 5. What is competency? faculty? talent? 6. What are dexterity and skill? How are they related to talent? 7. What is efficacy? efficiency?