An Essay on the Signs of Ideas, 251 
more empty and unmeaning than the whist- 
ling of the idle wind. 
‘© Mankind in general, “ says one of the 
acutest men whom modern times have produ- 
ced, “ are not sufficiently aware, that words 
mithout meaning, or of equivocal meaning, 
are the everlasting engines of fraud and 
injustice.”’** Nothing then can be more useful, 
than to accustom ourselves to examine nar- 
rowly for what ideas a word stands, or may 
stand ; and, if we find it to stand for none at 
all, orto be employed, on various occasions, to 
express ideas of the most discordant kind, let 
us be careful of suffering ourselves to be de- 
ceived by it, or by those who use it. All 
words, however, are not to be rejected be- 
cause they do not represent ideas. In the 
sequel, I shall endeavour to shew that there 
are some words of thiskind, the use of which 
is proper, and necessary. 
- The only sources of our knowledge, it is 
eertain, are our own feelings. Language is, 
or professes to be, employed in giving names 
to these, or to use the more common mode of 
speaking, in expressing ourideas. The real 
and only intelligible meaning of this phrase, 
must be, that it is employed to excite, in the 
* Exce mieporvla, Vou. 1. page 75. 
