ections
arises in the minds of many; and an appearance of no small contradiction
between their notions and their actions. There are many who love virtue
and who detest vice, and this not from hypocrisy or affectation, who
notwithstanding very frequently act ill and wickedly in particulars
without the least remorse; because these particular occasions never came
into view, when the passions on the side of virtue were so warmly
affected by certain words heated originally by the breath of others; and
for this reason, it is hard to repeat certain sets of words, though
owned by themselves unoperative, without being in some degree affected;
especially if a warm and affecting tone of voice accompanies them, as
suppose,

Wise, valiant, generous, good, and great.

These words, by having no application, ought to be unoperative; but
when words commonly sacred to great occasions are used, we are affected
by them even without the occasions. When words which have been generally
so applied are put together without any rational view, or in such a
manner that they do not rightly agree with each other, the style is
called bombast. And it requires in several cases much good sense and
experience to be guarded against the force of such language; for when
propriety is neglected, a greater number of these affecting words may be
taken into the service, and a greater variety may be indulged in
combining them.

SECTION IV.

THE EFFECT OF WORDS.

If words have all their possible extent of power, three effects arise in
the mind of the hearer. The first is, the _sound_; the second, the
_picture_, or representation of the thing signified by the sound; the
third is, the _affection_ of the soul produced by one or by both of the
foregoing. _Compounded abstract_ words, of which we have been speaking,
(honor, justice, liberty, and the like,) produce the first and the last
of these effects, but not the second. _Simple abstracts_ are used to
signify some one simple idea without much adverting to others which may
chance to attend it, as blue, green, hot, cold, and the like; these are
capable of affecting all three of the purposes of words; as the
_aggregate_ words, man, castle, horse, &c. are in a yet higher degree.
But I am of opinion, that the most general effect, even of these words,
does not arise from their forming pictures of the several things they
would represent in the imagination; because, on a very diligent
examination of my own mind, a