The French word 'etonnant' was used by Bossuet with a terrible
weight of meaning which it has lost to-day. A similar thing can be
observed with the English word 'awful.' Some nations constitutionally
tend to understate, others to overstate. What the British Tommy called
an unhealthy place could only be described by an Italian soldier by
means of a rich vocabulary aided with an exuberant mimicry. Nations
that understate keep their word-currency sound. Nations that overstate
suffer from inflation in their language.
"Expressions such as 'a distinguished scholar,' 'a clever writer,'
must be translated into French as 'a great savant,' 'an exquisite
master.' It is a mere matter of exchange, just as in France one pound
pays 46 francs, and yet one knows that that does not increase its
value at home. Englishmen reading the French press should endeavour to
work out a mental operation similar to that of the banker who puts
back francs into pounds, and not forget in so doing that while in
normal times the change was 25 it is now 46 on account of the war. For
there is a war fluctuation on word exchanges as well as on money
exchanges.
"The argument, one hopes, works both ways, and Frenchmen do not fail
to realize that there is as much value behind English reticence as
behind their own exuberance of expression."]
Millions of those who are watching him can read hardly at all.
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