They are acquaintance one degree farther removed than
those of the second class. Your task is to bring them into class two and
thence into class one--that is, to introduce them into your more formal
speech, and from this gradually into your everyday speech.
The fourth class of words is made up of those you recognize when you hear
or read them, but yourself never employ. They are acquaintance of a very
distant kind. You nod to them, let us say, and they to you; but there the
intercourse ends. Obviously, they are not to be brought without
considerable effort into a position of tried and trusted friendship. And
shall we be absolutely honest?--some of them may not justify such
assiduous care as their complete subjugation would call for. But even
these you should make your feudal retainers. You should constrain them to
membership in class three, and at your discretion in class two.
Apart from the words in class four, you will not to this point have made
actual additions to your vocabulary. But you will have made your
vocabulary infinitely more serviceable. You will be like a man with a host
of friends where before, when his necessities were sorest, he found (along
with some friends) many distant and timid acquaintance.
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