Page:Ralcy H. Bell - The Mystery of Words (1924).pdf/162

 of research, every occupation, art, and trade—every one of them contributes an element of diversity of meaning to the words at its command. Not only that, but, as we have seen, a protean spirit is manifest wherever circumstances demand change. Add to this fact that which permits the will, through the faculty of speech, to create new words in response to fresh needs, a phenomenon is met which would be hopelessly involved were it not for the laws of harmony relating the whole to its different factors. For, as meanings shift, expand, contract, and otherwise change, the very elements that produce the changes also condition our consciousness in relation to the altered significations of the words affected. If it were otherwise, there would be confusion; and the diverse elements or collateral meanings would thwart their own ends. Indeed, every change of meaning represents a separate value, and every value is equivalent to another word.

Naturally, meanings which may be modi-