is a perfectly good noun to express the meaning, ness should not be affixed to the adjective. That is always a cheap way of supplying the noun you want, and gives an aspect of cheapness to your style, indicating a lack of reading and of knowledge of the language. There are, however, a few exceptions. Take the word truthful, derived from truth, and truthfulness has a special meaning, which truth does not wholly carry. Similarly with faithful; faithfulness carries a meaning which is not so clearly expressed by faith. Faith was formerly used in that sense, as: "He kept faith with me." To speak of one's faith in that sense is strictly correct; but faithfulness as expressing the quality is the better form. By considering words in this way each word becomes an entity, and language comes to have a perspective. IX SPECIMENS OF POWER SOMETIMES we appreciate the various elements of literary power most vividly through brief selections, as we see a sudden beauty in the child-angels of the San Sisto Madonna when presented by themselves, separated from the larger work of which they form a part. In the Soldiers' Home Park at Washington the trees at one point have been trimmed in, leaving an opening known as the Capitol Vista, and, as you stand on a knoll and look southward, the vast white building, with its lofty dome, rises from afar on your vision with a beauty such as does not crown it when viewed merely as one feature of the wide landscape. In our reading we do well to cull and con salient passages, those of special strength and beauty, to mark them in our books, to learn them by heart. They become strategic points of interest, and we can recover the connection before and after at will. Let us here present a few— chance specimens gathered here and there, illustrating as by flashes the power and beauty of which our literature is full. Glance backward across three centuries to the Elizabethan period and note a soldier's portrayal of a peaceful rural scene. Everybody has heard |