similar groups of such external symbolic 

 sounds, forms, gesticulations, and expres- 

 sions with our own concepts, thoughts, 

 and feelings, we could not hope to under- 

 stand others, or be understood by them. 

 Laughter in another, e.g., might really in 

 itself mean grief, did not such outward 

 symbolic expression correspond with a 

 similar causal relation between our own 

 constant forms of outward expression and 

 our inner real feeling which we have 

 learned to designate by the word symbol 

 — laughter. (See Lange's History of 

 Materialism, Vol. IL, 316.) To the 

 inexperieced this analysis may 

 seem trivial, but it is really 

 necessary ; for it will be dis- 

 closed presently how closed all forms 

 of illusion by the intervention of word 

 symbols, may, through mistaken inter- 

 pretation, result in much unnecessary 

 strife and confusion. For it logically 

 follows that if any idea-symbol be 

 used by anyone in an abnormal way, 

 whether in ignorance, at random, or as a 

 wilful misrepresentation, he is likely to 

 produce a wrong conception in the minds 

 of those who are in the habit of using 

 the idea-symbol correctly. 



ILLUSIONS RELATED TO WORD SYMBOLS. 



The form, color, intensity, and specific 

 significance of actual ideas can never be 

 closely approximated by the agency of 

 words between persons whose capacities 

 dififer, or whose mental culture may happen 

 to be at different staRes of development. 



Every cultivated person knows from 

 experience that particular words or phrases 

 related to complex ideas— although at 

 first used familiarly in a general sense — 

 come by closer study and wider culture to 

 stand for a much broader, deeper, and 

 clearer conception than that afforded by 

 the insignificant seed idea which at the 

 first stage was associated with the par- 

 ticular word symbol in this person's mind. 

 It is at this stage where confusion is apt 

 to arise in controversy between good, 

 earnest men. Philosophers, too, find in 

 this region their favorite battle ground. 

 But as regards the latter, so long as dis- 

 tinctions remain unclassified, it is perhaps 

 well that a wisely conducted conflict 

 should be maintained; for it is in such 

 conflict that we come to expand the new 

 idea, aud to form the needful expression. 

 The ignorant person, as well as the 



superficial word glutton, so largely 

 produced by our gramaphonic systems 

 of education, only catch remotely the 

 order of genus of the cultured thinker'^ 

 idea. To the class referred to — th& 

 Species, or the fully developed light and 

 shade of the cultured person's idea is 

 more or less concealed in penumbral 

 darkness. The illusions which arise out 

 of these differing conditions, however, are 

 often very disastrous ; for co these may 

 chiefly be attributed the reason why the 

 prophets of each succeeding age have 

 been stoned, crucified, maligned, or other- 

 wise maltreated. The fungoid illusions 

 which batten upon forms of expression 

 have been the cause of much evil. That 

 the evils arising out of word illusion is 

 not exaggerated may be easily proved. 

 Let anyone attempt to get a clear grasp 

 of the ideas of any two persons of average 

 education with respect to the real nature 

 and particular meaning of the following 

 group of idea symbols as used by the 

 learned, viz.: — 



Anthropomorphism, Atheist, Christiant 

 Communist, Deist, Darwinian, Deter- 

 minism, Evolutionist, Hypnotism, Pa- 

 ganism. Pantheism, Bealism, Sceptic^ 

 Socialism, Teleologist, Spiritualist, Ag- 

 nostic, Mind, Force, Matter, Spirit, SouU 

 Body, Ego, Non-Ego, Religion, Moral 

 sense. Will, and suchlike. 



These terms cover a very wide field. 

 They are in common use in some sens© 

 by the learned and unlearned ; by the 

 learned of opposing schools of thought; 

 but as there are comparatively few who 

 take the honest trouble, or have the 

 mental capacity to understand in their 

 fullness the history and complex ideas 

 underlying these words or symbols, it 

 follows that they must be fertile sources 

 of illusion ; and the fruit of such illusion, 

 where strong feelings are concerned, have 

 been, and ever will be, confusion, bitter- 

 ness, and strife. The proof of this is 

 manifested by the frequency of the use of 

 terms ending in 1st ; not so much as an 

 expression of the appropriate underlying 

 thought or feeling, as of a dim notion of a 

 quality involving reproach and deprecia- 

 tion. Clearly to all such the particular 

 term is illusory ; and the application, so 

 far as intention is concerned, is likely to 

 be as *alse and unjust as when at Antioch, 

 the fierce opponents of the followers of 



