Charles Waldstein

“ Joy has less need of sympathy: the happy are apt to be self-sufficient. He can afford to share some of his pain with his brethren; but joy is a matter much in demand, and he cannot well spare a particle of it—that, unless it can be increased by division, is devoured alone.
And, finally, there are fewer expressions of joy, because contentment is essentially a unit, is one, or at least is so in its perfect state, toward which we strive. There is a homely German saying, "Satter wie satt kann man nicht werden." Satiety is the one point, and all that is above or below this point is not enjoyable. ”

“ The too frequent use of strong language may indurate and blunt our feelings, as excessive indulgence in alcoholic stimulants deadens the sensibility of our palate. And there can hardly be a doubt but that the frequent use of words disproportionate in their strength to the thoughts and feelings in whose connection they are used has detracted from the original strength of the French language. Naturally the strongest word ought to be used to give expression to the strongest feeling. ”

“ There are desirable emotions, and they can be cultivated. Language is a means of cultivating them. There is a great difference in the mental cast of those who know but one language and those who know several, even if they have never left their home. The latter are possessed of broader vision and feeling, they have learned new feelings. When we have learned the true meanings of the French word "chic" and the German word "Gemüthlichkeit," we may have learned something the existence of which was unknown to us before. ”

“ But a character of deeper passion has a perpetual standard in itself, by which as by an instinct it tries all cases, and rejects the language of passion as disproportionate and ludicrous where it is not fully justified. ”

“ Then, again, elation means motion and unrest; it points to restless diffusion, while contraction must end, and points to quiet and rest; and therefore sculptors, to whom to a great extent we owe the creation of the ideal of human beauty, rendered the latter and shunned the former.
In the second place, sympathy, if sought by the happy, is less sure to be obtained; for man has the evil tendency to envy, and, though it is easy for him to feel the delight of compassion and pity, he is more grudging with his sympathy with others' joy. He has also the tendency to egoism. ”

“ The character of a nation may be judged of in this particular, by examining its idiomatic language. The French, in whom the lower forms of passion are constantly bubbling up from the shallow and superficial character of their feelings, have appropriated all the phrases of passion to the service of trivial and ordinary life, and hence they have no language of passion for the service of poetry, or of occasions really demanding it, for it has been already enfeebled by continual association with cases of an unimpassioned order. ”

“ Joy manifests itself in an expansion of the facial muscles, and avoids the eye of the sculptor who wishes to render a beautiful harmonious display of features. The sinking and contraction of grief, on the other hand, bring out more markedly the fine features and the modeling. ”

“ Therefore, when the pessimist points to the wealth of expression in pain, and to the poverty in expressions of pleasure, and when he points to the difficulty of defining contentment, while pain comprises so many states, he has not disproved the positive nature of pleasure. ”

“ It is a well-known fact that, after the Norman Conquest, the language of the conqueror, French, became the language of the aristocracy. This has manifested itself in the fact that the raw materials of food—cattle, etc.—retained their Saxon names, such as calf, ox, sheep, etc., while the prepared meat is called by the French terms, beef, veal, mutton. Words used by the aristocracy will retain a high and polite signification, while the corresponding words in Saxon used by the vulgar will be spurned by the higher classes, and will receive a vulgar stamp. ”

“ When we are contented we have arrived at the normal state of existence; there is no other way of expressing it, for it is unique, and cannot be split into various shadings. And we are generally driven to express different shadings of joy by the physical concomitants of that feeling, as elation, thrilling, etc. It is the one positive point. [3]
All these causes will evidently influence lyric poetry, the musically-poetical expression of emotions. It is very difficult to say more than that we are happy, while we may tell many things of our peculiar feelings of misfortune. ”

“ If the language is poor in expressions it can be made richer. Coining of words ought not to be condemned a priori. It is self-regulating. If a person thinks something worth thinking, or feels something worth feeling, and cannot find an adequate expression, let him coin a word—if possible, one which manifestly conveys his meaning. ”

“ But strong words have been so blunted through frequent use that they have lost their sharp edge, and pass over our thick skin without even pricking our sensibility; while, at moments when we expect a heavy blow, the light tickling of the socially polite feather may far more vividly stimulate our sensibility. ”

“ At present there is a strong reaction against the French idiom in German. Politics and language are closely linked together in their bearing upon one another, and loss in political prestige precedes repression of idiom.
During the time of the Revolution we might have expected a revival of the old word, such as Lust; but the Revolution was puritanic in spirit, and so, instead of being reinstated it was still more repressed, for Puritanism with its stern features was ever averse to expressions of joyful emotions. ”

“ On the other hand, we hardly need fear, with Victor Hugo, that we may find the "typical" man of the world who has lost all power of passion in habitually repressing it; and we are prepared to receive the full meaning of deep words when they come. ”

“ The coarseness of some of the earlier English novelists, I think, was chiefly a reaction against the French manners of former periods. In my limited personal experience, I have found that many young men, who had spent their days with the ideal of "good form" before them, have taken a childlike delight in using vulgar language when free from restraint. ”

“ The measured tone of sad words and their context is more adapted to musical rhythm than the rapid, short expressions of mirth. As in sculpture the woful expression is more plastical than the joyful, so in poetry the sad strives toward harmonious form more readily than the happy, and therefore we shall have fewer poems expressive of joy than of sorrow.
But to return to the main topic: The greatest distinction between the German and English language is perceived when we compare the expressions of the bright side of emotions. ”

“ But the use of sarcasm itself indicates an abnormal state of mind, and its frequent cultivation during a certain epoch, or in a certain country, is almost an infallible symptom of disease in some quarter. When polite and otherwise weak words are used in a powerful context, it is almost invariably a sign of over-frequent and hackneyed use of strong words. ”

“ Fortune, however, does not correspond to Glück as Misfortune corresponds to Unglück. It may be urged that Fortune had already lost its deep meaning in the Latin, perhaps because of the fickle and worldly character which poets attributed to the goddess Fortuna; but the difference in the comparative depth of signification between Fortune and Misfortune illustrates what I mean. Fortune has more and more turned toward a signification of luck or chance, or to an expression of the most worldly accidents of happiness, as wealth, etc. ”

“ Then, again, we feel that the person who wrote this is on the one hand a man of the world, who can constrain passionate outbursts, and this prepares us for the subsequent great effect when his passion is let loose; for the man of the world is not the man of the street, who uses weighty language for light occasions. ”

“ And we are not inclined to show our smiling face without hope of having it reciprocated; while we may fail to reproduce in our readers the sad mood which drove us to write a sad poem and still not feel ridiculous. ”

“ The ignorant and the thoughtless, however, will continue to class the English character under the phlegmatic temperament, while the philosopher will perceive that it is the exact polar antithesis to a phlegmatic character. ”

“ The reaction against this abuse of strong language may lead, on the one hand, to this disproportionate use of lighter words, or, on the other hand, to a return to coarseness. In coarseness there is still an element of strength ”