網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

perly answered. But as to words; they seem to me to affect us in a manner very different from that in which we are affected by natural objects, or by painting or architecture; yet words have as confiderable a share in exciting ideas of beauty and of the fublime as any of those, and fometimes a much greater than any of them; therefore an inquiry into the manner by which they excite fuch emotions is far from being unneceffary in a discourse of this kind.

[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

and eloquence, as well as that of words in ordi-
nary converfation, is, that they affect the mind
by raising in it ideas of those things for which cuf-
tom has appointed them to ftand. To examine the
truth of this notion, it may be requifite to obferve
that words may be divided into three forts. The
first are such as represent many simple ideas united
by nature to form fome one determinate compofi-
tion, às man, horfe, tree, castle, &c. Thefe I
call
aggregate words. The fecond, are they that
ftand for one fimple idea of fuch compofitions,
and no more; as red, blue, round, fquare, and
the like. Thefe I call fimple abstract words. The

third, are those, which are formed by an union, an arbitrary union of both the others, and of the various relations between them in greater or leffer degrees of complexity; as virtue, honour, perfuafion, magistrate, and the like. These I call compound abstract words. Words, I am fenfible, are capable of being claffed into more curious diftinctions; but these seem to be natural, and enough for our purpose; and they are disposed in that order in which they are commonly taught, and in which the mind gets the ideas they are substituted for. I fhall begin with the third fort of words; compound abstracts, fuch as virtue, honour, perfuafion, docility. Of thefe I am convinced, that whatever power they may have on the paffions, they do not derive it from any representation raised in the mind of the things for which they ftand. As compofitions, they are not real effences, and hardly caufe, I think, any real ideas. Nobody, I believe, immediately on hearing the founds, virtue, liberty, or honour, conceives any precise notions of the particular modes of action and thinking, together with the mixt and simple ideas, and the feveral relations of them for which thefe words are fubftituted; neither has he any general idea, compounded of them; for if he had, then fome of those particular ones, though indistinct perhaps, and confufed, might come foon to be perceived. But this, I take it, is hardly ever the cafe. For,

put

put yourself upon analysing one of these words, and you must reduce it from one set of general words to another, and then into the fimple abftracts and aggregates, in a much longer feries than may be at first imagined, before any real idea emerges to light, before you come to discover any thing like the first principles of fuch compofitions; and when you have made fuch a discovery of the original ideas, the effect of the compofition is utterly loft. A train of thinking of this fort, is much too long to be pursued in the ordinary ways of converfation, nor is it at all neceffary that it fhould. Such words are in reality but mere founds; but they are founds which being used on particular occasions, wherein we receive some good, or fuffer fome evil; or fee others affected with good or evil; or which we hear applied to other interesting things or events; and being applied in fuch a variety of cafes, that we know readily by habit to what things they belong, they produce in the mind, whenever they are afterwards mentioned, effects fimilar to thofe of their occafions. The founds being often used without reference to any particu lar occafion, and carrying still their first impres fions, they at last utterly lose their connexion with the particular occafions that gave rife to them; yet the found, without any annexed notion, con tinues to operate as before.

SECT.

SECT. III.

GENERAL WORDS BEFORE IDEAS.

Mr. LOCKE has fomewhere obferved, with his ufual fagacity, that moft general words, thofe belonging to virtue and vice, good and evil, efpecially, are taught before the particular modes of action to which they belong are prefented to the mind; and with them, the love of the one, and the abhorrence of the other; for the minds of children are fo ductile, that a nurse, or any perfon about a child, by feeming pleafed or difpleafed with any thing, or even any word, may give the difpofition of the child a fimilar turn. When afterwards, the several occurrences in life come to be applied to these words, and that which is pleafant often appears under the name of evil; and what is disagreeable to nature is called good and virtuous; a ftrange confufion of ideas and affections arifes inthe minds of many; and an appearance of no fmall contradiction between their notions and their actions. There are many who love virtue and who deteft vice, and this not from hypocrify or affectation, who notwithstanding very frequently act ill, and wickedly in particulars without the least remorfe; because these particular occafions never came into view, when the paffions on the fide of virtue were fo warmly affected by VOL. I. certain

X

[ocr errors]

certain words heated originally by the breath of others; and for this reafon, it is hard to repeat certain fets of words, though owned by themselves unoperative, without being in fome degree affected, especially if a warm and affecting tone of voice accompanies them, as suppose,

Wife, valiant, generous, good, and great.

These words, by having no application, ought to be unoperative; but when words commonly facred to great occafions are used, we are affected by them even without the occafions. When words which have been generally fo 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 bombaft. And it requires in feveral cafes much good fenfe and experience to be guarded against the force of fuch language; for when propriety is neglected, a greater number of thefe affecting words may be taken into the fervice, and a greater variety may be indulged in combining them.

SECT. IV.

THE EFFECT OF WORDS.

IF words have all their poffible extent of power, three effects arise in the mind of the hearer.

The

· first

« 上一頁繼續 »