CHAP. 1.] THE STARTING-POINT. 



imply that all our states of consciousness are feelings, tends 

 to insinuate a belief that we have no faculty but &quot; sensation.&quot; 

 This is not the precise meaning of the above-mentioned 

 writers, but it is a meaning likely to be given to their words 

 by very many, and it is therefore an abuse of language. To 

 say that we have a feeling that two sides of a triangle are 

 greater than the third side, is to use the word not only in a 

 non-natural but in a misleading sense. 



The third preliminary operation will stand thus : 



III. Whatever can he distinctly conceived l&amp;gt;y the mind can le 

 communicated to others by articulate speech. 



At the end of a controversy with Agnostics they may turn 

 round upon their opponents and deny the validity The third 

 of any conclusions arrived at on the ground of the propos) 

 inadequacy of articulate speech to express their deepest 

 their primary conceptions and convictions. To avoid this 

 denial, it is desirable to point out that unless Agnostics are 

 prepared to admit the validity of &quot;oral words&quot; as used in 

 their discussions and investigations, they should abstain alto 

 gether from such discussions. They should so abstain, since, 

 unless the &quot; spoken word &quot; can be made to correspond in a 

 practically sufficient manner with the thoughts conceived, 

 there can be no communication of such thoughts, and every 

 man is bound not to tax the time and attention of hearers or 

 readers by arguments which he knows are necessarily absurd 

 and futile, and by phrases arid expressions which he is aware 

 cannot but be empty and unmeaning a necessarily resultless 

 logomachy. It may be confidently affirmed that no sane 

 man really believes that what he distinctly conceives he can 

 in no way articulately convey to others with practical accu 

 racy and sufficiency ; but should any men profess to believe 

 in such impotence of verbal expression, then they are clearly 

 bound to abstain from controversy altogether, and not inflict 

 on us expressions of opinion which are in the opinion of their 

 very utterers, necessarily misleading, and verbal judgments 



