Grenville Kleiser

“ The clouds that move like spirits o'er the welkin clear [welkin = sky]
The clustered apples burnt like flame
The colored bulbs swung noon-like from tree and shrub
The crimson close of day
The curl'd moon was like a little feather
The curling wreaths like turbans seem
The dark hours are swept away like crumbling ashes
The dark mass of her hair shook round her like a sea
The dawn is rising from the sea, like a white lady from her bed
The dawn had whitened in the mist like a dead face
The dawn with silver-sandaled feet crept like a frightened girl. ”

“ Milton, master of majestic prose, under whose touch words became as living things; Flaubert, who believed there was one and one only best word with which to express a given thought; De Quincey, who exercised a weird-like power over words; Ruskin, whose rhythmic prose enchanted the ear; Keats, who brooded over phrases like a lover; Newman, of pure and melodious style; Stevenson, forever in quest of the scrupulously precise word; Tennyson, graceful and exquisite as the limpid stream; Emerson, of trenchant and epigrammatic style; Webster, whose virile words sometimes weighed a pound ”

“ To read or speak pleasingly one should resort to constant practise by doing so aloud in private, or preferably, in the presence of such persons as know good reading when they hear it and are masters of the melody of sounds. It was Dean Swift's belief that the common fluency of speech in many men and most women was due to scarcity of matter and scarcity of words. He claimed that a master of language possessed a mind full of ideas, and that before speaking, such a mind paused to select the choice word—the phrase best suited to the occasion. ”

“ Nothing is better suited to lead speakers and readers of English into an easy control of this language than the command of the phrase that perfectly expresses the thought. Every speaker's aim is to be heard and understood. ”

“ Dark with unutterable sorrows
Darkness oozed out from between the trees
Dawn had broken
Day stood distinct in the sky
Days of vague and fantastic melancholy
Days that are brief and shadowed
Deep shame and rankling remorse
Deficient in affectionate or tender impulses
Delicately emerging stars
Delicious throng of sensations
Despite her pretty insolence
Dignity and sweet patience were in her look
Dim opalescence of the moon
Dimly foreshadowed on the horizon
Dimmed by the cold touch of unjust suspicion
Disfigured by passages of solemn and pompous monotony. ”

“ When you have chosen a section of the book which particularly appeals to you, begin your actual study by reading the phrases aloud. Read them slowly and understandingly. This tends to impress them more deeply upon your mind, and is in itself one of the best and most practical ways of acquiring a large and varied vocabulary. Moreover, the practise of fitting words to the mouth rapidly develops fluency and facility of speech.
Few persons realize the great value of reading aloud. Many of the foremost English stylists devoted a certain period regularly to this practise. ”

“ Rufus Choate, in order to increase his command of language, and to avoid sinking into mere empty fluency, read aloud daily, during a large part of his life, a page or more from some great English author. As a writer has said, "The practise of storing the mind with choice passages from the best prose writers and poets, and thus flavoring it with the essence of good literatures, is one which is commended both by the best teachers and by the example of some of the most celebrated orators, who have adopted it with signal success." ”

“ Speech is the harvest of thought, and the relation which exists between words and the mouths that speak them must be carefully observed. Just as nothing is more beautiful than a word fitly spoken, so nothing is rarer than the use of a word in its exact meaning. There is a tendency to overwork both words and phrases that is not restricted to any particular class. The learned sin in this respect even as do the ignorant, and the practise spreads until it becomes an epidemic. The epidemic word with us yesterday was unquestionably "conscription" ”

“ He has taught also what the great HOLMES taught, that language is a temple in which the human soul is enshrined, and that it grows out of life—out of its joys and its sorrows, its burdens and its necessities. ”

“ One cannot always live in the palaces and state apartments of language, but we can refuse to spend our days in searching for its vilest slums. —William Watson
Words without thought are dead sounds; thoughts without words are nothing.
To think is to speak low; to speak is to think aloud.
—Max Muller
The first merit which attracts in the pages of a good writer, or the talk of a brilliant conversationalist, is the apt choice and contrast of the words employed. ”

“ Despondency clung to him like a garment that is wet
Destructive as the lightning flash
Die like flies
Dip and surge lightly to and fro, like the red harbor-buoy
Disappearing into distance like a hazy sea
Dissatisfaction had settled on his mind like a shadow
Dissolve like some unsubstantial vision faded
Do make a music like to rustling satin
Dogging them like their own shadow
Dost thou not hear the murmuring nightingale like water bubbling from a silver jar? ”

“ Ruskin earnestly counsels us to form the habit of looking intensely at words. We should scrutinize them closely and endeavor to grasp their innermost meaning. There is an indefinable satisfaction in knowing how to choose and use words with accuracy and precision. As Fox once said, "I am never at a loss for a word, but Pitt always has the word."
All the great writers and orators have been diligent students of words. Demosthenes and Cicero were indefatigable in their study of language. Shakespeare, "infinite in faculty," took infinite pains to embody his thought in words of crystal clearness. ”

“ The words we use are an unmistakable indication of our thought habits, tastes, ideals, and interests in life. In like manner, the habitual language of a people is a barometer of their intellectual, civil, moral, and spiritual ideals. ”

“ The abuse of phrases and the misuse of words rife among us can be checked by diligent exercises in good English, such as this book provides. These exercises, in conjunction with others to be found in different volumes by the same author, will serve to correct careless diction and slovenly speech, and lead to the art of speaking and writing correctly; for, after all, accuracy in the use of words is more a matter of habit than of theory, and once it is acquired it becomes just as easy to speak or to write good English as bad English. ”

“ The birds swam the flood of air like tiny ships
The boat cuts its swift way through little waves like molten gold and opal
The boom of the surf grew ever less sonorous, like the thunder of a retreating storm
The breast-plate of righteousness
The breathless hours like phantoms stole away
The breeze is as a pleasant tune
The calm white brow as calm as earliest morn
The camp fire reddens like angry skies
The chambers of the house were haunted by an incessant echoing, like some dripping cavern
The church swarmed like a hive
The city is all in a turmoil ”

“ Many, too, are conscious of a poverty of language, which engenders in them a sense of timidity and self-depreciation. The method used for building a large vocabulary has usually been confined to the study of single words. This has produced good results, but it is believed that eminently better results can be obtained from a careful study of words and expressions, as furnished in this book, where words can be examined in their context.
It is intended and suggested that this study should be pursued in connection with, and as a supplement to, a good standard dictionary. ”

“ Cloud-like that island hung afar
Clouds like the petals of a rose
Cloudy mirror of opinion
Cold and hard as steel
Cold as the white rose waking at daybreak
Cold, glittering monotony like frosting around a cake
Collapsed like a concertina
Colored like a fairy tale
Companionless as the last cloud of an expiring storm whose thunder is its knell
Consecration that like a golden thread
runs through the warp and woof of one's life
[warp = lengthwise threads]
[woof = crosswise threads] ”

“ What we think molds the words we use, and the words we use react upon our thoughts. Hence a study of words is a study of ideas, and a stimulant to deep and original thinking.
We should not, however, study "sparkling words and sonorous phrases" with the object of introducing them consciously into our speech. To do so would inevitably lead to stiltedness and superficiality. Words and phrases should be studied as symbols of ideas, and as we become thoroughly familiar with them they will play an unconscious but effective part in our daily expression. ”

“ We flirt with and pirouette around them constantly. If it were not so, English would be found full of beauty and harmony of sound. Familiar with the maxim, "Take care of the vowels and the consonants will take care of themselves,"—a maxim that when put into practise has frequently led to the breaking-down of vowel values—the writer feels that the common custom of allowing "the consonants to take care of themselves" is pernicious. ”

“ Many persons of good education unconsciously circumscribe themselves within a small vocabulary. They have a knowledge of hundreds of desirable words which they do not put into practical use in their speech or writing. ”

“ All persons should avoid using words whose meanings they do not know, and with the correct application of which they are unfamiliar. The best spoken and the best written English is that which conforms to the language as used by men and women of culture—a high standard, it is true, but one not so high that it is unattainable by any earnest student of the English tongue. FRANK H. VIZETELLY.
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK The study of words, phrases, and literary expressions is a highly interesting pursuit. There is a reciprocal influence between thought and language. ”

“ Waves glittered and danced on all sides like millions of diamonds
We left her and retraced our steps like faithless hounds
Weak and frail like the vapor of a vale
Wearing their wounds like stars
Weary wind, who wanderest like the world's rejected guest
When a draft might puff them out like a guttering candle
[guttering = To melt through the side of the hollow in a candle
formed by a burning wick; to burn low and unsteadily; flicker] ”

“ The habit of regularly copying, in your own handwriting, one or more pages of phrases will be of immense practical value. This exercise is a great aid in developing a facile English style. The daily use of the pen has been recommended in all times as a valuable means of developing oral and literary expression.
A helpful exercise is to pronounce a phrase aloud and then fit it into a complete sentence of your own making. This practice gives added facility and resourcefulness in the use of words. ”

“ Kleiser has not only supplied it, but has furnished a means for the increase of one's vocabulary by practical methods. There are thousands of persons who may profit by the systematic study of such a book as this if they will familiarize themselves with the author's purpose by a careful reading of the preliminary pages of his book. To speak in public pleasingly and readily and to read well are accomplishments acquired only after many days, weeks even, of practise. ”

“ There are others that stand out as indicators of brain-weariness. These are most frequently met in the work of our novelists.
English authors and journalists are abusing and overworking the word intrigue to-day. Sir Arthur Quillercouch on page 81 of his book "On the Art of Writing" uses it: "We are intrigued by the process of manufacture instead of being wearied by a description of the ready-made article." ”

“ Foreigners sometimes reproach us for the asperity and discordance of our speech, and in general, this reproach is just, for there are many persons who do scanty justice to the vowel-elements of our language. ”

“ HOW TO READ AND DECLAIM A course of instruction in reading and declamation which will develop graceful carriage, correct standing, and accurate enunciation; and will furnish abundant exercise in the use of the best examples of prose and poetry. Cloth, $1.50, net; by mail, $1.65.
GREAT SPEECHES AND HOW TO MAKE THEM In this work Mr. Kleiser points out methods by which young men may acquire and develop the essentials of forcible public speaking. Cloth $1.50, net; by mail, $1.65.
HOW TO ARGUE AND WIN Ninety-nine men in a hundred know how to argue to one who can argue and win. ”

“ Then it fell into a state of somnolence, and after an existence of innocuous desuetude lasting till 1794 it was revived, only to hibernate again until 1894. It owes its new lease of life to a writer on The Westminster Gazette, a London journal famous for its competitions in aid of the restoring of the dead meanings of words.
One is almost exasperated by the repeated use and abuse of the word "intimate" in a recently published work of fiction, by an author who aspires to the first rank in his profession. ”

“ Your eyes they were green and gray like an April day
Your frail fancies are swallowed up, like chance flowers flung upon the river's current
Your hair was golden as tints of sunrise
Your heart is as dry as a reed
Your locks are like the raven
Your love shall fall about me like sweet rain
Your step's like the rain to summer vexed farmer
Your thoughts are buzzing like a swarm of bees
Your tongue is like a scarlet snake
Your voice had a quaver in it just like the linnet [linnet = small finch]
Youth like a summer morn
SECTION IX CONVERSATIONAL PHRASES A A most extraordinary idea! ”