 Chapter 9 Part 2 of the English language by Logan Piersle-Smith This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. It is this practical or utilitarian spirit, which would probably most oppress us, and our minds would feel imprisoned in the small box of the medieval universe, with its confining spheres, its near-monetary stars and didactic animals. And yet, should we thoroughly enter into the atmosphere of that time and find mankind and ourselves not the temporary and accidental inhabitants of a remote planet, but standing at the centre of a universe whose unifying principle was not mechanical law but justice and divine grace, and whose end and purpose were the fulfilment of human destiny, we might feel that our life had gained a dignity and a gravity which modern science had taken from it, and that in the spiritual and not in the natural world was to be found, after all, the true home of the human soul. There is another change in our vocabulary pointing to a change in thought and feeling quite as profound as that produced by science and the sense of law and order in the material universe. The great pioneers of the Renaissance discovered not only the world of natural phenomena but another world equally vast and varied and new, the world of man. Man had indeed been placed by medieval thought at the centre of the universe and nature made subservient to his needs, but it was not man as he is in himself that was regarded, but man in his relation to society or the church. The natural man with his individual variation from the inherited type was hardly considered. He was subordinated to the great and dominant scheme of theology and he was thought of not so much as a person as of a soul to be saved or lost, probably to each of us the sense of his own personality, the knowledge that he exists and thinks and feels is the ultimate and fundamental fact of life. But this sense of personality of the existence of men as separate individuals is one of the latest developments of human thought. Man in early societies is not thought of as an individual and there are savage languages that possess no word for I or for the conception of myself. An examination of those words by which we express this notion of personality and their history will show that this simple fundamental conception like most other simple conceptions was a late fruto, daring thought and was only reached by devious ways and after much abstract speculation. The word individual, literally inseparable, was the word formed in scholastic Latin from the earlier individuum, which meant an indivisible particle or atom. Individual was used in medieval logic for a member of a class or species and also as a theological term with reference to the Trinity and did not acquire its present meaning in English before the time of Shakespeare. The great classical and medieval word person has an even more curious history. It is in its origin one of those many words, seen, scenery, landscape, attitude, contrast, character, expression, costume, etc. which have come to us from the arts and show how conceptions and distinctions first achieved by art are found by those thought out by philosophy to be a useful application to life and natural phenomena. Poor person was originally a dramatic term. The Latin persona derived it as believed from the verb personare to sound through, meaning an actor's mask. From this it acquired the meaning of actor's part or of one who performs or acts any part and especially a personage, one who plays an important part on the stage of life. Its next meaning was legal, a man's personal rights and duties which depend upon his position in life and it did not acquire the meaning of an individual human being till late in Roman times. This was probably helped by the use of the word in Christian theology for a person of the Trinity and we may say in general that the notion of personality though of stoic origin was greatly developed by Christian thought with its sense of the infinite worth of the individual human soul. This conception then had already been achieved by medieval thought and the words person, personal personality belong to this period. They have however received in modern times an immense extension of meaning and another whole group of words has been created or adopted to express the various new conceptions to which the idea of personality has given birth. The ego with egoism are terms introduced by French philosophers in the 17th century and egotism is another French term. These were borrowed at various periods. Egotism which is used by Addison being the first to appear in English while egotistical belongs to the 19th century. But before this the old word self like a germ that finds a soil and atmosphere favourable to its multiplication began to form compounds in enormous quantities self liking, self love, self conceit self assurance, self regard, self destruction self murder belong to the later part of the 16th century and these are followed in the next 100 years by self contempt, self applause self confidence, self esteem self defence, self command and many others. The multiplication of these words has gone on steadily ever since self help and self assertion a characteristic of the 19th century and self culture has come to us from the strenuous climate of New England. Selfish and selfishness are Puritan words formed by the Presbyterians about 1640 to express a notion for which the older self love was too vague and filaughty from the Greek and Suicism from the Latin to pedantic for popular acceptance though both of them are tried. The self or ego is not however a simple object but possesses many aspects and attributes the more abstract qualities of human reason found their names as we've seen in scholastic philosophy but fancy and instinct belong to the time of Shakespeare and impulse to the 17th century The distinction between talent and genius is a modern one and the evidence of language throws considerable light upon its origin. The word genius appears first in English early in the 16th century in the classical sense of a tutelary god or attendant spirit it then acquired the meaning of the spirit or distinctive character of an age or institution and then of the natural ability or capacity of a man. Its modern use for extraordinary and mysterious creative power was slowly developed in England in the 18th century and was perhaps helped by the use of genius to translate the Arabian Jinn, J.I. Dublin the supernatural beings of the Arabian Knights Our modern use was not however recognized in Johnson's dictionary but was only received in its full definition in the romantic period of Sturm und Drang in Germany where the distinction between genius and talent was strongly emphasized and whence it was brought back by students of German literature to England in the 19th century The Germans on the other hand imported in the 18th century our word original which in the phrase original composition had recently acquired in England a new meaning based on the modern word originality Our use of the old words temperament and personality in phrases such as artistic temperament or strong personality are still more modern and the subconscious or subliminal self are very recent additions to our vocabulary But before this conception of personality found its full development the human mind had awakened to a vivid sense of the multitudes of individuals with their various characters and passions who go, as we say, to make up the world The human vocabulary of the Middle Ages is somewhat poor and meager and it is only now and then in the works of a great writer like Chaucer that we get glimpses of the rich and varied secular life of this period We have names for religious or military characters terms descriptive of noble or base condition pride or humility courage or cowardice and in addition to the oldest feelings of human nature hate, fear, love and joy we find a large vocabulary of the emotion sanctioned by religion remorse, repentance, anguish, delight despair, compunction But when men freed themselves from the bounds of theology at the same time that they broke through the confining spheres of the Aristotelian heavens they saw a whole universe of varied human natures spread to people of them The human intelligence like Adam naming the animals in the Garden of Paradise found terms for the secular characters with their passions and peculiarities which pass before it in motley procession This process of observation and naming has continued ever since and a list of these words arranged according to the dates of their appearance would help us to enter into the feelings of the different generations and to understand their likes and dislikes and what they thought were the appraisal condemnation Such a study would however expand this book to undue proportions and we will confine ourselves to a short account of the terms of abuse or depreciation as these are the ones in which the spirit of an age mirrors itself most vividly and in these two the genius of the language is most completely manifested Medieval terms of abuse villain, churl, boar, nave are very largely derived from the names of people in a humble condition and from a striking opposition to kind, free, gentle, gentlemen etc which signify noble birth There is however one word dangerous which like the adjective proud we may contrast with these For dangerous is derived ultimately from the Latin Dominus Lord or Master and its earliest meaning in English was that of haughty, arrogant, difficult In Chorus's time it was used to express another aspect of a Lordly character coming to mean fastidious, delicate, dainty and it is not found but the meaning of perilous or risky before the 15th century Among later terms we have already mentioned those of Protestant controversy and to these may be added the characteristic adjectives credulous and superstitious words that if they had existed would have had no abusive sense before the Reformation of words describing secular characteristics cold-hearted, affected, indiscreet bold-faced and moody as we use them now are first found in Shakespeare and revengeful, cynical, absurd also belong to this period In the 17th century words fanciful, fatuous, callous disingenuous, country-fied we find a somewhat nicer if more superficial observation and omitting the restoration terms of abuse which we have already mentioned we notice in the 18th century adjectives prim, demure prudish, gawky, bearish and impolite all of which refer to qualities objectionable in the intercourse of society which was so highly developed in this period There are two other words that are very characteristic of the 18th century enthusiastic and intolerant enthusiastic and the noun enthusiasm were first used at the English Renaissance with the historic olympagian meaning of possession by a god or divine frenzy but they came in the 18th century to be abusive terms for religious fanatics and religious fanaticism and enthusiastic only recovered a good meaning at the more romantic end of the century if enthusiasm was repellent to this quote in light and age intolerance, which is have to accompany it was equally repellent and we find that intolerant and intolerance both make their appearance now indeed there would have been no need for them before the restoration nor would they have been abusive words at an earlier period these 18th century words form a curious contrast to the earlier terms of abuse miscreant, renegade, and libertine in which wrong or liberal views on religious subjects were taken to imply moral delinquency but the study of human nature can be pursued from two points of view we may observe our fellow men and their ways and characters or we may turn within and study our own selves know thyself was an exaltation inherited from antiquity but it's complete realisation has only been accomplished in modern times speaking generally we may say that the men of the renaissance devoted their minds to observing their fellow human beings and that men did not turn to the study of themselves the second great chapter in the Book of Life until more than a century had passed this great revolution in thought this discovery of the inner life and feelings was due to many influences Protestantism by making the experiences of each individual a foundation of religion was one of its causes and was no doubt helped by the writings of a man like Montaigne who was the first in modern times to devote himself to the study of his own moods and thoughts this change in the point of view gained also impetus from the great revolution in philosophy when in the 17th century Descartes turned the world inside out and defined the activity of consciousness and the certainty of the thinking self as the most immediate fact of existence but all these and many other influences were partly the cause partly the symptoms of this shifting of thought to a new centre our object is to consider it for a moment not in its ultimate sources but in its growth and diffusion in English life as shown by the English language can be well seen in the history of the word conscious and its derivatives conscious was borrowed from the Latin poets at the time of Shakespeare with the sense of sharing knowledge with another and was used of inanimate things as Milton's conscious night the word is first found in Ben Johnson's Poetasta who ridicules it as a modern and affected term it was used by Locke of thoughts and feelings and finds its full extension and definition early in the 18th century when we read of conscious beings consciousness first found in 1632 attained its philosophical definition late in the 17th century when it was described by Locke as perception of what passes in a man's own mind to Locke also we owe the use of the compound self-consciousness then recently formed in its modern sense and at about this time the old word subjective shifted its meaning from the scholastic sense of existing in itself and took on the meaning of existing in consciousness or thought self-knowledge self-examination self-pity and self-contempt belong to the self-words of the 17th century and with them appear a swarm of what we may call introspective words words that describe moods and feelings are seen from within as part of our own inner experience the older kind of names for human passions and feelings we may call objective that is to say they are observed from outside and named by their effects and moral consequences these names are apt to be moral labels stuck on dangerous tendencies to warn us of their ultimate results most people must have felt at one time or another the grotesque incongruity of ugly names like greed or malice for feelings delightful at the moment and a non-human observer from another planet might be puzzled to find that the passions and propensities that were called by the least attractive terms were the ones that mankind most persistently indulged the more modern and sympathetic names for human feelings derived from introspection and self-analysis only begin to appear in large numbers about the middle of the 17th century lonelyness indeed and disgust and lassitude are a little earlier but at this time words like aversion daydream, dissatisfaction, discomposure make their appearance depression is transferred from material objects to a state of mind and the old word reverie which at first meant joy and then anger acquires its modern and introspective meaning this vocabulary of moods and feelings was increased in the 18th century by ennui, chagrin, homesickness, diffidence, apathy while the older words excitement, agitation, constraint embarrassment, disappointment come to be applied to inner experiences with these words we find a curious class of verbs and adjectives which describe not so much the objective qualities and activities of things as the effects they produce on us our own feelings and sensations to divert, to enliven, to entertain to amuse, to entrance, to fascinate to disgust, to dissatisfy with the adjectives entertaining, exhilarating, perplexing and many others are all modern words or old words given a new and modern meaning some of them indeed are very recent and our use of the common adjectives amusing and exciting is not found before the 19th century perhaps the most characteristic of all these modern adjectives is the word interesting which is put to so many uses that we can hardly imagine how life carried on without it and yet interesting is not found before the 18th century when it first meant important and its first use with its present meaning appears characteristically enough in Stern's sentimental journey published in 1768 about the same time the verb to bore appeared and we who are so often bored or interested must if we wish to enter into the state of mind of past ages try to imagine time when people thought more of objects than of their own emotions and when if they were bored or interested would not name their feeling but mention the quality or object that produced it this change is a subtle and yet an important one it is due to our increased self-consciousness and our greater sense of the importance of the inner world of feeling one of the latest products or byproducts of this change is the modern habit of taking a conscious pleasure in our emotions this sentimental attitude is well dated for us by the appearance of the word sentimental itself about the middle of the 18th century it soon became passionable and carried aboard by Stern's sentimental journey it was borrowed by the French and translated by the Germans thus showing as many other instances would show happy the space to give them that these changes of language thought and feeling were not confined to England but belong to a general movement in which the whole of civilised Europe took part one nation borrowing from the other as new developments arose the contributions of England to European civilisation as tested by the English words in continental languages beef tech pudding grog jockey tourist comfort sport etc are not generally of a kind to cause much national self-congratulation we may be justly proud however of our political terms Parliament political budget meeting speech and we can at any rate claim that sentimentality of modern Europe as a product of this age of 18th century sensibility in England when the words affecting and pathetic required their present meanings and when our ancestors began to speak of their feelings and emotions our account of these developments of modern thought and the growing sense of individuality and self-consciousness has been necessarily somewhat hurried in any study of this kind we must be on our guard against hasty generalisations and we should test moreover the changes in one country with those of the languages of other countries which share with us the general civilisation of Europe and we must also guard against the notion that men at any period did not possess certain thoughts and feelings because they had no words to express them the investigation of the character of different ages by the study of the words used in the Mizzat unless it be pursued with caution to need to strange and often absurd conclusions it has ever been seriously argued from the vagueness and insufficiency of his colour words that Homer as well as his contemporaries was colour blind but as has been well pointed out the fact that the Homeric Greeks have no expression for green does not prove that they did not see the colour but that they did not want the word and so if the Elizabethans had no word for disappointment and homesickness we cannot assume that they did not experience these feelings but only that they were not interested in expressing them but this difference, this change of value and interest is a very real and very important one vague feelings and thoughts that lurk dim and unexpressed in the background of the mind become very different and much more important when our attention is directed to them and they appear sharply defined in consciousness the change of thought from one generation to another does not depend so much on new discoveries as the gradual shifting into the centre of vision of ideas and feelings that had been but dimly realised before and it is just this shifting from the background to the centre of thought that is so important and yet so elusive which is marked and dated in the history of language when anything becomes important to us it finds its name and the history of these names in the English language can be traced by many changes in English life many developments of thought which would yield a rich reward to patient and careful study End of chapter 9 part 2 End of the English language by Logan Pissle Smith