" "walk fast,"
"the sun shines hot," "drink deep;" and the use of prepositions
adverbially at the end of a sentence, as in "Where are you
going to?" "The subject which I spoke to you about," etc.
We therefore see that idiom is not only a thing to justify,
but something to strive for with all our might. The use of it gives
character to our selection of words, and better than anything else
illustrates what we should be looking for in forming our habit of
observing the meanings and uses of words as we read.
Another thing we ought to note in our study of words is the _suggestion_
which many words carry with them in addition to their obvious meaning.
For instance, consider what a world of ideas the mere name of Lincoln
or Washington or Franklin or Napoleon or Christ calls up. On their face
they are but names of men, or possibly sometimes of places; but we
cannot utter the name of Lincoln without thinking of the whole terrible
struggle of our Civil War; the name of Washington, without thinking of
nobility, patriotism, and self-sacrifice in a pure and great man;
Napoleon, without thinking of ambition and blood; of Christ, without
lifting our eyes to the sky in an attitude of worship and thanksgiving
to God.
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