lows the flag," "the
dollar of the fathers," "the key of the Pacific," "peace with honor,"
are some of the recent coinages or recoinages. Phrases have great power
when they are antithetical or alliterative. Some opponents of the silver
proposition were quite perplexed by the saying: "The white man with the
yellow metal is beaten by the yellow man with the white metal." In 1844
the alliterative watchword "Fifty-four forty or fight" nearly provoked a
war. If it had been "Forty-nine thirty or fight," that would not have
had nearly so great effect. The "Cape to Cairo" railroad is another case
of alliteration. Humanitarianism has permeated our mores and has been a
fountain of phrases. Forty years ago the phrase "enthusiasm of humanity"
was invented. It inspired a school of sentimental philosophizing about
social relations, which has been carried on by phrase making: "the
dignity of labor," "the nobility of humanity," "a man is not a ware,"
"an existence worthy of humanity," "a living wage." "Humanity" in modern
languages is generally used in two senses: (_a_) the human race, (_b_)
the sympathetic sentiment between man and man. This ambiguity enters
into all the phrases which are humanitarian.

+178. Pathos.+ Suggestion is powerfully aided by _pathos_, in the
original Greek sense of the word. Pathos is the glamour of sentiment
which grows up around the pet notion of an age and people, and which
protects it from criticism. The Greeks, in the fourth century before
Christ, cherished pathos in regard to tyrannicide. Tyrants were bosses,
produced by democracy in towns, but hated by democrats. Tyrannicides
were surrounded with a halo of heroism and popular admiration.[373]
Something of the same sentiment was revived in the sixteenth century,
when it appeared that a tyrant was any ruler whose politics one did not
like. It cost several rulers their lives. Pathos was a large element in
the notions of woman and knighthood (twelfth and thirteenth centuries),
of the church (thirteenth century), of the Holy Sepulcher (eleventh and
twelfth centuries). In the thirteenth century there was a large element
of pathos in the glorification of poverty. A great deal of pathos has
been expended on the history and institutions of Greece and Rome in
modern times. Classical studies still depend largely on it for their
prestige. There is a pathos of democracy in the United States. In all
English-speaking countries marriage is an object of pathos. The pat