THE POWER OF WORDS.
R.. BRYAN, as we pointed out last week, is one of those rare men who seem to have the power of leading men by phrases,—of stringing together a set of words whiob, for good or evil, hypnotise, as it were, men's minds. The mesmerists find that some patients are so susceptible to their art that a sudden flash of light or an acute sound will throw them at once into the hypnotic state and make them amenable to the influence of an external will. Others again are hypnotised by the slow revolutions of wheels stuck over with bits of looking-glass—larks in France are snared by this device—or by a long-continued and monotonous drone of sound. Apparently mankind in the mass is made liable to the influence of an external will by somewhat similar devices. One school of orators gets power over the crowd by long-drawn eloquence ; another by those short, sharp sentences which, as Bacon says, fly abroad like darts. Mr. Bryan belongs to the latter school of political mesmerists. His now famous phrase as to his countrymen being crucified on a cross of gold appears in an instant to have placed his hearers at his disposal. That "puff of wind" carried them away so com- pletely that the man who had spoken it became in a moment the chief power in the Democratic party.
There is, of course, nothing new in this power of apt voeables. Two hundred years ago one of the acutest of English men of letters analysed and discussed the surprising ease with which men allow themselves to be led by the ears. In his sermon on "The Fatal Imposture and Force of Words" (preached in 16SG), Dr. South showed how "the generality of mankind is wholly and absolutely governed by words and names" even "against the knowledge men have of things." The multitude, he pointed out, like a drove of sheep or herd of oxen, may be managed by any noise or cry which their drivers accustom them to. "And be who will set up for a skillfull manager of the Rabble, so long as they have but Ears to hear, needs never enquire, whether they have any understanding whereby to judge; but with two or three popular, empty Words, such as Popery and Superstition, Right of the Subject, Liberty of Conscience, Lord Jesus °lariat well tuned and humour'd; may whistle them backwards and for- wards, upwards and downwards, till he is weary ; and get up upon their Backs when he is so." The meaning of the words, as he says, matters very little. Only let the combination sound full and round and "chime right to the humour," and it will carry all before it. "A plausible insignificant word in the mouth of an expert demagogue is a dangerous and a dreadful weapon." It must not be supposed, however, that South was foolish enough to think that any chance word would serve to inflame and then overrule men's minds. He pointed out that to give words their full power they must fall on a prepared soil, must be spoken at the psychological moment. The orator must take a passion in the soul of man "while it is predominant and afloat, and just in the critical height nick it with some lucky or unlucky word." This done, he says, you may as certainly overrule the passion to your own purpose "as a spark of fire falling upon gunpowder will infallibly blow it up." That is a very exact analysis of the fatal power of words. The orator may scatter telling phrases in thousands, and they will run from the multitude like water off a duck's back if there is not afloat some answering passion or desire. It is when men's hearts are filled with vague and restless wishes and hopes that the power of words is felt. Mr. Bryan's words took such terrific effect because in the Western States the passion of self-pity had already been aroused. Rightly or wrongly, the men of the Western States think that they are injured by a gold standard. They believe that gold is the cause of the depression from which they are suffering. To their minds men who expect mortgage debts to be discharged in gold are heartless tyrants,—men who want blood from a atone, Shylocks who insist upon their pound of flesh. Mr. Bryan was face to face with a concourse of men in whose minds all these thoughts were seething, but seething dumbly and inarticulately. He seized the passion just at its critical height, and nicked it with the lucky (or, as it may prove, unlucky) word, and in an instant he had the Convention at his feet, and proved, as South says, that he could as certainly overrule for his own pur- poses the passion he had nicked with his phrase as he could fire powder with a match. Though we take Mr. Bryan's speech as an example, we do not wish to imply that he intended to make a bad use of the power he obtained by nicking the passion of the West. Even if his main object was to gain power for himself, it may well be that he only
wished for that power in order to lead his countrymen along what he considers the true road. As to his motives, then, we pronounce nothing. We merely point out that the Chicago incident was an almost perfect example of South's theory. Nor do we wish to deny that sometimes the popular passion is "nicked" for good purposes as well as for evil,—Cromwell's "Take away this bauble" is an instance. Those four words had, and still have, an immense effect in making men realise that pomps and ceremonies, unless they rest on realities, are the vainest and weakest of things. In a previous article dealing with this subject we pointed out that Sydney Smith's memorable speech at Taunton, during the Reform agitation of 1832, "nicked" the passion of the moment, but nicked it for good. The country was seething with indigna- tion against the House of Lords, and seemed undetermined whether it should overbear the Peers by quiet and steady pressure, or whether it should sweep them away in a whirl- wind of revolution. Sydney Smith supplied the word that gave the passions aroused a good instead of an evil impulse. He told them bow bravely Mrs. Partington had, mop in hand, withstood the Atlantic, but how it proved an unequal contest, and how Mrs. Partington was defeated,—" Do not be afraid, gentlemen, we shall beat Mrs. Partington." The situation was saved by a laugh. The passion possessing the nation had been labelled "invincible," and the country felt it need be in no hurry, and could afford not to anticipate the inevitable result of the struggle between the ocean and the mop. Dr. South goes on to show how it is not merely crowds but special classes and individuals who are liable to be captured and enslaved by mere words :—
" It is a Weakness, or rather a Fate, which attends both high and low. The Statesman, who holds the Helm, as well as the Peasant who holds the Plough. So that if ever you find an Ignoramus in Place or Power, and can have so little Conscience, and so-much Confidence, as to tell him to his face, that he has a Wit and understanding above all the World beside; and That what his own Reason cannot suggest to him, neither can the United Reasons of all Mankind put together ; I dare undertake, that, as fulsome a Dose as you give him, he shall readily take it down, and admit the Commendation, though he cannot believe the Thing."
Even on so obvious a matter as looks and age people are influenced by phrases. Indeed, says the Bishop, the fatal strength of words is more fully shown here than anywhere else :- " But to give yen a yet grosser Instance of the force of Words, and of the extreme Variety of man's Nature in being influenced by them, hardly shall you meet with any person, Man or Woman, so aged, or ill-favoured, but if you will venture to commend them for their Comeliness; nay, and for their Youth too ; though Time out of mind is wrote upon every line of their face ; yet they shall take it very well at your hands, and begin to think with themselves, that certainly they have some Perfections, which the generality of the World are not so happy as to he aware of."
When South comes to try and explain the fatal force of words he finds himself, as we must all do, in a difficulty. He can give no real explanation of why they, the channels of reason and experience, influence men so often against all reason and all experience. His only resource is to call it "verbal magic," but whence proceeds the power of this magic he does not attempt to tell us. Our own belief is that the power lies in the fact that we cannot rightly think, reason, and understand without words. Feelings and emotions may arise in our minds, but till we fit them with a word they are blind things that grope and wander and have no force. They cannot be realised till they have a name. The man who rules his fellows with words is he who is lucky enough to hit upon the word which fits and describes the feeling in the mind of the multitude and so makes it in- telligible. Very often the word is not the true one, but that, unfortunately, does not matter. If it is near the truth, or gives the multitude the name which they would like to attach to their blind emotion, it suffices. The moment that the multitude have heard and accepted the word they feel as if they had been relieved from blindness, or as if while they were wandering in the dark the sun had appeared. At last they know, or think they know, what they want. The next feeling is one of intense gratitude towards the man who has shown them the light. They feel for him as a guide, even though they may not consciously admit that they received any enlightenment from him, and though they may believe that they all along knew and understood the name and nature of the feeling which he has interpreted to them. As an
example of what we mean we may again take the example of
Mr. Bryan and the Chicago Convention. The Western men are suffering from difficulties and depression in business, from a fall in the prices of the things they sell, and from no fall either in taxation or in the price of the things they buy. They are consequently distressed and restless, and have their minds fall of all sorts of explanations of their misery. Their inclination has always been to believe their ill-fortune due to the appreciation of gold, but up till a week ago they had never called their distress martyrdom, or actually dared to declare that they were suffering unjustly at the hands of evil men. Their minds were working in that direction, but they had not realised their feeling in words. Then came Mr. Bryan, and gave their sorrows and complaints a name, and all seemed clear and intelligible. They were martyrs in a great cause. Here, indeed, was verbal magic. The words of the orator had worked with terrific power, but only because they put a name on something which before was nameless. This so-called verbal magic is then only a sudden application of that intellectual power which mankind obtains by words. But this must not make us doubt or minimise its importance.
That the power of words is vast and far-reaching, especially and whenever men are in doubt, difficulty, and distress, and are miserable without any apparent cause, is only too clear.
Then, indeed, as South says, it is a case of gunpowder and a spark. We cannot better end this inquiry into the fatal force of words than by again borrowing the eloquence of South. His peroration shall be ours. He tells us how men may grow to demand nothing but smooth and pleasant things from their political directors :—
" Accordingly in the 30th of Isaiah, we find some arrived to that pitch of Sottishness, and so much in love with their own Ruin, as to own plainly and roundly what they would be at; in the 10th verse ; Prophesie not unto us, say they, right things, but prophesie to us smooth things. As if they had said, Doe but oil the Razor for us, and let us alone to cut our own Throats. Such an Enchantment is there in Words ; and so fine a thing does it seem to some, to be ruined plausibly, and to be ushered to their destruction with Panegyrick and Acclamation; A shamefull, though irrefragable Argument of the absurd Empire and Usurpation of Words over Things ; and, that the greatest Affairs, and most important Interests of the World, are carried on by Things, not as they are, but as they are called."
But, alas ! we have to deal with things as they are called. Things as they are cannot be communicated except with
words. The only remedy, then, is to strive to make the name and the thing itself correspond as nearly as may be.
Previous page
