12 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 



in themselves and difPerentlj exploited. The words used thus 

 far in illustration, namely ^^right" and ^^left," express ideas de- 

 rived from the "universe of things. But other egocentrics deal 

 with what may be called the universe of speech. To illustrate, 

 suppose I do my thinking for a while without reference to the 

 possibility of exchanging thought with others. As a prelimi- 

 nary move I find it convenient to differentiate myself from all 

 else, establishing self as the prime factor of all that is. The 

 vast remainder I further easily disting-uish into what is near me, 

 namable by ^^this/' and what is more remote, namable by ^^fchat." 

 But I do not imagine how, on such lines, I should ever reach 

 the idea named by "you.'' So long as I class you by your dis- 

 tance only, it seems to me that you must be to me that only which 

 your distance implies, that is, a '^this man" or a "that man," 

 according to your position. 



If on the other hand I think of you as a possible hearer of 

 what I say, your proper designation is "you" ; and this I use 

 without reference to your position. Whether he whom I ad- 

 dress be next me or across the room, able to hear ray whisper 

 or just within the range of my loudest shout, in my presence 

 or reachable only by the longest telephonic wire; whether he 

 be my hearer or my reader; whether he understand by watch- 

 ing my lips or fingers, if deaf, or by personal contact, if also 

 blind ; in all cases I think of him as "you." The value of this 

 "you" is also in all cases the same. It names one specially re- 

 lated to the complex act of speech. Such a conception is clearly 

 quite without the category of space and, barring figurative 

 usage, exclusively within the category of thought-exchange. 



Ideas of this nature and their symbols, being obtained from 

 the act of speech, should properly derive their designation from 

 that act. At this point, however, there rises the usual diffi- 

 culty, that the best verbal materials have been preempted for 

 other purposes. Gleaning therefore after others' reaping, I 

 note that the present class of words, being occasioned by the 

 fact of speech, are ex causa linguae. With no great stretch of 

 verbal capacity they may accordingly be known as lingua- 

 causate. The egocentrics of this special type correspond, though 

 not completely, with the personal pronouns of Grammar. 



