understand that the person had knowledge of words but could not put
them together rightly. And if the person continued to talk to you in
this manner you might feel inclined to lose your patience and not
listen. But if you would stop and consider things and examine yourself
you would learn something well worth thinking about.

You would discover that your own ability to put words in the right
order has come from being obedient. First of all, you have been
willing to imitate what others said until you have thereby learned to
speak quite well. Besides that, you have been corrected many times by
those about you at home, and in school, until language is at length a
careful habit in you. Every one knows at once what you mean. You see,
therefore, that you may combine words in such a manner that you will
be easily comprehended by others; or, as in the case of the imaginary
person we began with, they may be combined in a perfectly senseless
way. Consequently, it is not enough to know words alone, we must know
what to do with them. The true art of using words is to put full and
clear meaning into a few of them; to say as much as possible with as
few words as you may select.

Tones may be treated in the same manner as words. One can write tones
in such a manner as to say quite as senseless a thing as "Well day are
to you!" Many do. This teaches you that true and simple
tone-sentences, like similar word-sentences, must have for their
object to say the fullest and clearest meaning in as little space as
possible.

For many hundreds of years thoughtful composers have studied about
this. They have tried in every way to discover the secrets underlying
tone-writing so that the utmost meaning should come out when they are