82 On Figurative Language. 
languages, in which such contrivances had 
already taken place. 
The names, and expressions, which have 
been applied to the mind, its faculties and 
operations, are transferred from external ob- 
jects and the corporeal senses, Spirit means 
mind or breath. Were I sufficiently ac- 
quainted with the Anglo-Saxon, I do not 
doubt but mind and soul might be accounted 
for in the same manner. Who does not at 
once see the transferred use of the words 
action, passion, affection, understanding, per- 
ception, recollection, and many more, when 
used in reference to the mind? What is more 
common than to say, I see, I take you, I assent, 
L consent, I refuse, I reject, &c. &c.? Though 
we cannot, at this distance, ascend to the 
‘primary objects to which these words were ap- 
plied, we can, at least, retrace them so far as 
to prove our object—that after men had pro- 
ceeded toa certain extent to give names to 
‘sensible objects, their next step was to apply 
these names figuratively to other objects, 
according to a certain analogy, real or sup- 
posed, 
All intellectual ideas are expressed by the 
names of sensible objects, from a supposed 
analogy or resemblance, the best the circum- 
stances of the case were supposed to admit of. 
