. What does _execration_ express? _imprecation_?

EXAMPLES.

Better is it that thou shouldest not ----, than that thou shouldest
---- and not pay.

Then how can any man be said
To break an ---- he never made?

* * * * *

OBSCURE (page 255).

QUESTIONS.

1. What is _obscure_? 2. How does _obscure_ compare with _complicated_?
with _complex_? with _abstruse_? with _profound_?

* * * * *

OBSOLETE (page 256).

QUESTIONS.

1. When is a word _obsolete_? When is a word _archaic_? 2. Is an _old_
or _ancient_ word necessarily _obsolete_? 3. What is meant by saying
that a word is _rare_? 4. Is a _rare_ word necessarily _obsolete_ or an
_obsolete_ word necessarily _rare_?

EXAMPLES.

When the labors of modern philologists began, Sanscrit was the most
---- of all the Aryan languages known to them.

Atlas, we read in ---- song,
Was so exceeding tall and strong,
He bore the skies upon his back,
Just as the pedler does his pack.

It is wonderful that so few ---- words are found in Shakespeare
after the lapse of three centuries.

* * * * *

OBSTINATE (page 256).

QUESTIONS.

1. How does _headstrong_ differ from _obstinate_ and _stubborn_? 2. How
do _obstinate_ and _stubborn_ differ from each other? Which is commonly
applied to the inferior animals and to inanimate things? 3. What is the
meaning of _refractory_? How does it differ from _stubborn_? Which word
is applied to metals, and in what sense? 4. What is the meaning of
_obdurate_? _contumacious_? _pertinacious_? 5. What words do we apply to
the _unyielding_ character or conduct that we approve?

EXAMPLES.

Is it in heav'n a crime to love too well?
To bear too tender, or too ---- a heart,
To act a Lover's or a Roman's part?

"I shall talk of what I like," she said wilfully, clasping her hands
round her knees with the gesture of an ---- child.

* * * * *

OBSTRUCT (page 257).

QUESTIONS.

1. What is the literal meaning of _obstruct_? How does it compare with
_hinder_? 2. How does _obstruct_ compare with _impede_? 3. What does
_arrest_ signify in the sense here considered?

EXAMPLES.

There is a certain wisdom of humanity which is common to the
greatest men with the lowest, and which our ordinary education often
labors to silenc