INSTRUCTION XXXIII. THE USE OF WORDS. WORDS are a kind of tools. By them, we think and give shape to what we think. By words, we make known our thoughts and feelings. This is their use. The use of a word is the employing it to stand for what it was made to stand for. Thus, we all have feelings. One of these is named by the word, like, and another by the word, love. I use these words, when I employ them to stand for the feelings, like and love; as, when I say, I like my books and love my parents. No word should be allowed to find its way into the mind without a knowledge of its use. What is the use of a word? How do we use words? INSTRUCTION XXXIV. HOW WE USE WORDS. WORDS, as you have learned, are the weapons or tools of the mind. It uses them to tell what it thinks and feels. It can do so only in sentences. A sentence is two or more words by which we say something of something. Thus, My mother is sick, is a sentence. It says something of something. In the use of words, we use, in this book, two kinds of sentences. The teacher uses an interrogative one; and the child a declarative one. An interrogative sentence is two or more words by which we ask something about something. Thus, Is home dear? A declarative sentence is two or more words by which we say something of something. Thus, Home is dear. What is a sentence? How many kinds used in this book? What is an interrogative sentence? A declarative one? INSTRUCTION XXXV. INSTRUCTIONS ABOUT ANGLO-SAXON ROOT-WORDS. THE end of the first part is reached. Here we may pause, and look back upon our course. We have learned many things by the way. We have learned all that is useful to us at present about the Ango-Saxon root-words of our language. We are now ready to begin their study, and learn how to spell, define and use above ONE THOUSAND of the choicest words in our language-the words of home, of the heart, of the senses, of childhood and of daily life. What have we learned up to this place? What are we now ready to begin? |