Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 14.djvu/211

Rh ladies. At present there is a strong reaction against the French idiom in German. Politics and language are closely linked together in their bearing upon one another, and loss in political prestige precedes repression of idiom.

During the time of the Revolution we might have expected a revival of the old word, such as Lust; but the Revolution was puritanic in spirit, and so, instead of being reinstated it was still more repressed, for Puritanism with its stern features was ever averse to expressions of joyful emotions. Only such joy as partook of a lofty, aspiring character was cultivated, and the amiable and light-hearted was immediately stamped as frivolous. I think we must look to Puritanism for an explanation of one curious fact in these expressions. We find many expressions of exalted joy, of temporary pleasurable states (as a contribution from the French), and of the lower pleasure which is to be spurned. But we hardly find a powerful word which expresses a lasting state of pleasure, comprising as well the smallest satisfaction as the loftiest happiness—I mean a word corresponding to the German Glückseligkeit and the Greek ενδαιμονία. In the German word the "glück" comprises all real happiness of life, and the "seligkeit" the most exalted spiritual happiness, and both combine to a lasting positive whole. A person would hardly be shocked were an Epicurean (a follower of the philosophy of Epicurus, I mean) to tell him that "Glückseligkeit was the aim of life," for this would include-the highest moral satisfaction; while many people would be shocked to hear that "pleasure," or even "happiness, is the aim of life." This I attribute chiefly to the fact that the Puritan spirit drew a marked line between pleasures: there were exalted pleasures, and there were low pleasures; the first are desirable, the rest are to be repudiated, and there is no middle way.

This spirit, of course, did not always reign supreme, and the natural tendency is never totally to be extinguished, and we have some Saxon expressions of light mirth. But to this spirit, and other natural and historical causes, I attribute the fact that the dark side of expressions has been developed in England out of proportion with the bright side. So, for instance, we find that the German word Mitgefühl is rendered by the English "sympathy." This word, which means a "feeling with," originally meant a "suffering with." But while the German can subdivide this "feeling with" into with-joy and with-suffering (Gönnen, Mitfreude, and Mitleid), the English have two expressions of with-suffering, compassion, and pity, but have no expression for with-joy. One may mention that congratulation conveys this meaning; but, though