264 THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



phraseology that helps us to view the falling apple in 

 its universal aspects. The mind acquires through 

 language a field of activity independent of the ob- 

 jective world. We have seen in an earlier chapter 

 that geometry developed as a science is becoming 

 gradually weaned from the art of surveying. Tri- 

 angles and rectangles cease to suggest meadows, or 

 vineyards, or any definite imagery of that sort, and 

 are discussed in their abstract relationship. Science 

 demands the conceptual rather than the merely sen- 

 sory. The invisible real world of atoms and cor- 

 puscles has its beginning in the reason, the word. To 

 formulate new truths in the world of ideas is the pre- 

 rogative of minds gifted with exceptional reason. 



To be sure, language itself may be regarded as im- 

 agery. Some persons visualize every word spoken as 

 though it were seen on the printed page ; others can- 

 not recall a literary passage without motor imagery 

 of the speech organs or even incipient speech ; while 

 others again experience motor imagery of the writing 

 hand. With many, in all forms of word-conscious- 

 ness, the auditory image is predominant. In the 

 sense of being accompanied by imagery all think- 

 ing is imaginative. But it is the use of words 

 that permits us to escape most completely from the 

 more primitive forms of intelligence. So directly 

 does the printed word convey its meaning to the 

 trained mind that to regard it as so much black on 

 white rather than as a symbol is a rare and rather 

 upsetting mental experience. Words differ among 

 themselves in their power to suggest images of the 

 thing symbolized. The word " existence " is less image- 

 producing than " flower," and " flower " than " red 



