Show SECOND STORY uy by miss thelma gardtner gardiner what are arc the advantages ad vantages of a 1 I rather complete know legde of correct english and of the ability to apply it in everyday life E english study has four aims tile alic mastery of our language as a 1 I scie science licu is as a history as a joy arid and as a 1 I tool too the last is the most important because let enjoyment go g o let history go let science go and english still rc remains mains E english ng as a tool or our language language Langu nrc is the best and greatest gift to man in expressing his inmost feelings feeling and clesi desires there ire are other expressing oneself as expressions motions arid and expressions of the eyes but the greatest of all is our language it is said that the supreme and ultimate product of civilization is two or three persons talking together in a room why not take advantage of so great a gift and cultivate it to its greatest capacity every hour our language is an in en e engine n cinc for communicating with others every instant for fashion fashioning 1119 the ilic thoughts of our own mind we cannot accomplish this in a very pleas pleasing manner to tile the one spoken to or to ourselves if ignorant of our own language and the way to use it shakespeare says time insults over aver dull and speechless tribes it and all who live in it insult over a speechless person so mutually dependent are arc we teaton that on our swift and f full al 11 commus cation with one another is staked the success of every scheme we form he who can explain him may command what he wants he who can cannot notis is left to poverty of individual resource so the persuading and explanatory tongue is there therefore one of tile the chief levers of life in becoming educated in english one learns to know definitely what he is going to say and then to select or choose those words which compel the hearer to think of this and only this sometimes we learn that two words are better than three the fewer the words the more pungent the impression this is very difficult and takes many hours of training the majority of us seldom say what w we mean and still more seldom mean what we say sav the knowledge of english gives one the ability to see for himself and the ability to see himself as others see him even if this knowledge gives us the abili ability ty to be more concise it also affords us a much larger vocabulary cab our dictionaries contain more than a hundred thousand words the average speaker employs about three thousand Is it because the ordinary people have only three or for thousand things to say not at all it is simply due to ignorance of our language some of us that are not in the author or public speaking class think that all the flowery words are for writers and speakers only the farmers ire are mostly of this class they need the ability to use good english as well as the great educators what would the race become if we all had the same idea we would become one of Shake speechless tribes if we tire are watchful of our speech making our words continually moro more minutely free true and resourceful if we wc look upon out our occasions of writing as opportunities for the deliberate work of unified action and construction if in till all our utterances wo think of him who hears as well as of hini him who speaks and above all if wo we fix the attention of ourselves and our li hearers on tile the matter we talk about and so let ourselves be supported by our subject we wc shall make a daily ad advance vanco this will not only be in english study but also in personal power in ill general beneral serviceableness and in consequent delight to speak and write well should bo be one of our highest ambitions we owe it to society as well as to ourselves |