The Book of the Whole Word

1:1 ¶ And the word was given to the creature as a gift before it was laid upon him as a duty; for the first speech of the world was naming, the calling of things by what they are; and the creature that nameth truly holdeth a small edge of the world's making.

THE BOOK OF THE WHOLE WORD 1:1

1:2 ¶ And the smallest whole things a creature owneth are these two: his yea and his nay. A yea kept is a stone in the wall of the house; a nay kept is the hinge of a door; and he that keepeth both may be poor, and yet be trusted with a house.

THE BOOK OF THE WHOLE WORD 1:2

1:3 ¶ And the elder word is the whole law of the matter: But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. And the book borroweth the two small words deliberately, and marketh the borrowing as lexical and not as any new etymology: for the yea and the nay are the creature's whole estate, and all that is added to them is a hedge around an open field.

THE BOOK OF THE WHOLE WORD 1:3

1:4 ¶ And the book confesseth: speech is a gift and not an enemy; for pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones; and a soft answer turneth away wrath; and a book that feared the tongue would be a book of muzzles, and this book is not that book.

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2:1 ¶ And the thinning of the word beginneth small, and it is the smallest of all the Party's works, and the most daily. And the first thinning is the omission: a clause is left out, and the sentence that remaineth is not false, and it is not true either; and the speaker saith, I spake no lie; and the ledger is content, and the neighbor is not.

THE BOOK OF THE WHOLE WORD 2:1

2:2 ¶ And the second thinning is the softened name: the firing becometh a release, and the seizure a measure, and the cage a room; and the creature that nameth softly forgetteth what the thing is, and teacheth his children the soft names, and the children do not know the things at all. For death and life are in the power of the tongue, and the tongue that nameth falsely hath already killed the thing it named.

THE BOOK OF THE WHOLE WORD 2:2

2:3 ¶ And the third thinning is the unkept yea, and it is the quietest of the four: the promise is spoken and not meant, or meant and not kept, and the mouth saith nothing false at the hour of the speaking; and the other creature buildeth upon the words, and the building falleth in a year, and the fall is charged to the ground. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth.

THE BOOK OF THE WHOLE WORD 2:3

2:4 ¶ And the fourth thinning is the plain lie, and the book confesseth that it is the least dangerous of the four; for a plain lie can be met and answered, and a halved word cannot be met at all, for there is nothing in it to take hold of. And the whole city defendeth the four with one sentence: the truth would not fit the ledger. And the book answereth: then let the ledger be mended, for the ledger was made for the creature, and not the creature for the ledger.

THE BOOK OF THE WHOLE WORD 2:4

3:1 ¶ And the whole word returneth, and it entereth by the heart first: for the elder word requireth not the polished sentence but the true inward part, and the creature must first decide what to be, and then what to say; and the speech that followeth such a heart is whole even when it stumbleth.

THE BOOK OF THE WHOLE WORD 3:1

3:2 ¶ And the first whole sentence is repair: where the omission stood, the omitted clause is spoken; where the soft name stood, the true name is restored; where the yea was unkept, the broken wall is rebuilded in the sight of the one who waited. And the elder word setteth the neighbor in the sentence: Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.

THE BOOK OF THE WHOLE WORD 3:2

3:3 ¶ And the whole word is not the harsh word; for truth without love is a weapon with a handle on both ends, and he that wieldeth it is smitten with the one he smiteth. And the elder word is the whole manner of it: Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And the book keepeth the truth and the hearer in one sentence, as the elder sentence keepeth them.

THE BOOK OF THE WHOLE WORD 3:3

3:4 ¶ And the book confesseth the order of the elder courtesies: swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. And the order is a wisdom and not a rule; for there are hours when the slow speech is the crime, and the creature that waited upon his wrath hath let the neighbor be devoured. Therefore the book joineth the courtesy to the courage, and saith: be swift to hear, and when the hour cometh for the whole word, be not slow to speak it, for the silence also can be a halved word.

THE BOOK OF THE WHOLE WORD 3:4

4:1 ¶ And the creature set a watch before his mouth, and the watch was not a muzzle; for it is written, Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips. And the door of the lips is kept as the temple keepeth its doors: opened for the whole word, closed against the halved; and the keeper of the door is no one's enemy, and no one's jailer, but the friend of the sentence.

THE BOOK OF THE WHOLE WORD 4:1

4:2 ¶ And the creature learned the fewness of words, and the wisdom of the sparing lip; and he learned also that fewness is not coldness, for the few whole words are heavy and carry far. And his yea became yea, and his nay nay, and the sentence was read without a rescue, and without a gloss below the fold, and the reader's charity was not required to make it true.

THE BOOK OF THE WHOLE WORD 4:2

4:3 ¶ And the whole word once spoken cannot be unspoken, and that is its terror and its honor; for the mouth's word abideth in the air of the cosmos, and entereth the record that cannot be edited, and is read there by no ministry and by no censor. Wherefore speak thou as one whose sentence is kept; and let it be such as may be read aloud without shame at the last day.

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4:4 ¶ And the book saith no more of it; for the grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever; and the whole word of a creature is the small print of that standing. Blessed be the yea and the nay, and blessed be the sentence that can be read without a rescue; and blessed be the neighbor addressed, to whom the whole word is due as a wage is due, and as a gift is given.

THE BOOK OF THE WHOLE WORD 4:4