At
last it ceased to be imaginative at all; through frequent repetition it
had settled into the matter of course. A glance back at the _Concise_
group above will show you that with time the comparison which was once the
basis and the life of the figurative use of words is dulled, obscured,
even lost.
As a further enforcement of this fact, let us analyze the word
_rough_. In its literal application, it may designate any surface
that has ridges, projections, or inequalities and is therefore uneven,
jagged, rugged, scraggy, or scabrous. Now frequently a man's face or head
is rough because unshaved or uncombed; also the fur of an animal is rough.
Hence the term could be used for unkempt, disheveled, shaggy, hairy,
coarse, bristly. "The child ran its hand over its father's rough cheek"
and "The bear had a rough coat" are sentences that even the most
unimaginative mind can understand. We speak of rough timber because its
surface has not been planed or made smooth. We speak of a rough diamond
because it is unpolished, uncut. Note that all these uses are literal,
that in each instance some unevenness of surface is referred to.
But man, urged on by the desire to say what he means with more novelty,
strikingness, or force, applied the word to ideas that have no surfaces to
be uneven.
Pages:
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371