praise." "Trench, though a capital fellow, was so hungry
that he ate voraciously."
_Offspring_ is likely to be used when our
thought is chiefly on the children, _progeny_ when our thought is
chiefly on the parents. _Offspring_ may be used of one or many;
_progeny_ is used in collective reference to many. "He was third
among the progeny who won distinction." "They are the progeny of very rich
parents." "Clayton left his offspring well provided for."
_Ghost_ is the narrower term. It never
expresses, as _spirit_ does, the idea of soul or of animating mood or
purpose. With reference to incorporeal beings, it denotes (except in the
phrase "the Holy Ghost") the reappearance of the dead in disembodied form.
_Spirit_ may denote a variety of incorporeal beings--among them
angels, fairies (devoid of moral nature), and personalities returned from
the grave and manifested--seldom visibly--through spiritualistic tappings
and the like. "The superstitious natives thought the spirit of their chief
walked in the graveyard." "The ghost of the ancestors survives in the
descendants." "I can call spirits from the vasty deep."
Nowadays the chief difference between the two terms is
that _foe_ is the more used in poetry, _enemy_ in prose.
But _foe_ tends to express the more personal and implacable
hostility. We do not think of foes as bearing any friendship for each
other; enemies may, or they may be enemies in public affairs but downright
friends in their private relations. A man is hardly spoken of as being his
own foe, but he may be his own enemy. "For the moment we found ourselves
foes." "Suspicion is an enemy to content." "I paid a tribute to my friend,
who was the dominant personality among the enemy."
_Truth_ has to do with the accuracy of the
statement, of the facts; _veracity_ with the intention of the person
to say nothing false. "I cannot vouch for the veracity of the story, but I
can for the truth of the teller." "Though he is not a man of veracity, I
believe he is now speaking the truth." "Veracity, crushed to earth, will
rise again."
. _Break_ is the broader term. It need not
refer clearly to the operation or result of external force, nor need it
embody the idea that this force is brought against a hard substance. In
these respects it differs from _fracture_, as also in the fact that
it may designate a mere interruption. Furthermore
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