ABSTRACT

The earliest use of words is simply as a means of communication. It was so apparently with the race, it is certainly so with children; but man has done with words as he has done with many other of his useful devices; made them also a source of pleasure. Literature is not valuable to us mainly for what it says, but for the manner in which it says it. Words have become things of beauty even if they convey little precise meaning. Who walked between the violet and the violet, Who walked between The various ranks of varied green Going in white and blue, in Mary's colour, Talking of trivial things In ignorance and in knowledge of eternal dolour Who moved among the others as they walked, Who then made strong the fountains and made fresh the springs Made cool the dry rock and made firm the sand In blue of larkspur, blue of Mary's colour, Sovegna vos. 1