may unflaggingly clarify or animate. But such triumphs are beyond the
reach of those, whether speakers or writers, who are constantly pausing to
grope for words. This does not mean that scrutiny of individual words is
wasted effort. Such scrutiny becomes the basis indeed of the more
venturesome and inspired achievement. We must serve our apprenticeship to
language. We must know words as a general knows the men under him--all
their ranks, their capabilities, their shortcomings, the details and
routine of their daily existence. But the end for which we gain our
understanding must be to hurl these words upon the enemy, not as
disconnected units, but as battalions, as brigades, as corps, as armies.
Dr. Johnson, one of the most effective talkers in all history, resolved
early in life that, always, and whatever topic might be broached, he
would on the moment express his thoughts and feelings with as much vigor
and felicity as if he had unlimited leisure to draw on. And Patrick Henry,
one of the few really irresistible orators, was wont to plunge headlong
into a sentence and trust to God Almighty to get him out.


EXERCISE - Tameness

1. Study Appendix I (The Drift of Our Rural Population Cityward).
Do you regard it as written simply, with force and natural feeling? Or
does it show lack of spontaneity?--suffer from an unnatural and self-
conscious manner of writing? Is the style one you would like to cultivate
for your own use?

2. Express, if you can, in more vigorous language of your own, the thought
of the editorial.

3. Think of some one you have known who has the gift of racy colloquial