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BIBLICAL LIBRARIES

be used in the right way, at the right time and the right place — in short with the right meaning. Many words have several meanings, all right if used at the right time and place and many things have several names, all right. Any great modern dictionary of any language has thousands of words with from two to a dozen or more carefully distinguished meanings. Sometimes their meanings are quite contrary to one another. This happens so often that some men once even had a theory that all primitive roots mean two opposite things. Here then is an easy way of misleading: and hence we have the pun and the double-entendre — the cheapest form of wit and the cheapest form of insult. Hence also come some forms of sophistry and pose.

Misleading may be unintentional, or intentional. If intentional it may be from malice and so the meanest thing on earth or it may be within the rules of some game

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