III
General Words Before Ideas Mr.Locke has somewhere observed,with his usual sagacity,that most general words,those belonging to virtue and vice,good and evil,especially,are taught before the particular modes of action to which they belong are presented to the mind;and with them,the love of the one,and the abhorrence of the other;for the minds of children are so ductile,that a nurse,or any person about a child,by seeming pleased or displeased with anything,or even any word,may give the disposition of the child a similar turn.When,afterwards the several occurrences in life come to be applied to these words,and that which is pleasant often appears under the name of evil;and what is disagreeable to nature is called good and virtuous;a strange confusion of ideas and affections arises in the minds of many;and an appearance of no small contradiction between their notions and their actions.There are many who love virtue and who detest vice,and this not from hypocrisy or affection,who notwithstanding very frequently act ill and wickedly in particulars without the least remorse;because these particular occasions never come into view,when the passions on the side of virtue were so warmly affected by certain words heated originally by the breath of others;and for this reason,it is hard to repeat certain sets of words,though owned by themselves unoperative,without being in some degree affected;especially if a warm and affecting tone of voice accompanies them,as suppose,Wise,valiant,generous,good,and great.
These words,by having no application,ought to be unoperative;but when words commonly sacred to great occasions are used,we are affected by them even without the occasions.When words which have been generally so applied are put together without any rational view,or in such a manner that they do not rightly agree with each other,the style is called bombast.
And it requires in several cases much good sense and experience to be guarded against the force of such language;for when propriety is neglected,a greater number of these affecting words may be taken into the service and a greater variety may be indulged in combining them.
IV
The Effect Of Words If words have all their possible extent of power,three effects arise in the mind of the hearer.The first is,the sound;the second,the picture,or representation of the thing signified by the sound;the third is,the affection of the soul produced by one or by both of the foregoing.Compounded abstract words,of which we have been speaking,(honour,justice,liberty,and the like,)produce the first and the last of these effects,but not the second.
Simple abstracts are used to signify some one simple idea,without much adverting to others which may chance to attend it,as blue,green,hot,cold,and the like;these are capable of affecting all three of the purposes of words;as the aggregate words,man,castle,horse,&c.,are in a yet higher degree.
But I am of opinion,that the most general effect,even of these words,does not arise from their forming pictures of the several things they would represent in the imagination;because,on a very diligent examination of my own mind,and getting others to consider theirs,I do not find that once in twenty times any such picture is formed,and when it is,there is most commonly a particular effort of the imagination for that purpose.But the aggregate words operate,as I said of the compound-abstracts,not by presenting any image to the mind,but by having from use the same effect on being mentioned,that their original has when it is seen.Suppose we were to read a passage to this effect:
"The river Danube rises in a moist and mountainous soil in the heart of Germany,where winding to and fro,it waters several principalities,until,turning into Austria,and leaving the walls of Vienna,it passes into Hungary;there with a vast flood,augmented by the Saave and the Drave,it quits Christendom,and rolling through the barbarous countries which border on Tartary,it enters by many mouths in the Black Sea."In this deion many things are mentioned,as mountains,rivers,cities,the sea,&c.But let anybody examine himself,and see whether he has had impressed on his imagination any pictures of a river,mountain,watery soil,Germany,&c.Indeed it is impossible,in the rapidity and quick succession of words in conversation to have ideas both of the sound of the word,and of the thing represented:besides,some words,expressing real essences,are so mixed with others of a general and nominal import,that it is impracticable to jump from sense to thought,from particulars to generals,from things to words,in such a manner as to answer the purposes of life;nor is it necessary that we should.
V
Examples That Words May Affect Without Raising Images I find it very hard to persuade several that their passions are affected by words from whence they have no ideas;and yet harder to convince them,that in the ordinary course of conversation we are sufficiently understood without raising any images of the things concerning which we speak.It seems to be an odd subject of dispute with any man,whether he has ideas in his mind or not.
