THE TEACHING OF LANGUAGE AS AN ORGANON. 127 



seems heavy compared with the swallows and the eagles. Yet with 

 faiths for his second lungs and sciences for his wings, he is the 

 lightest of the tribes; and if he seems chained to the ground now, 

 it is because these, his lives, have not been admitted into his bones. 

 His lungs, which may hang in the air (p. 95), are a prophecy that 

 his body, and bodies of his body, may be similarly suspended. For 

 what are his lungs but a balloon corded down into his flesh, of 

 which, when fully inflated by the spirit, his body is the car ? The 

 earth belongs to the human lungs as birthright and natural gift ; 

 they are "tied" to have it. The ocean belongs to the human lungs 

 by the held breath of the diver, who is at once the fisherman and 

 the fish. The air belongs to the human lungs by want, prophecy 

 and science; by the leading of Him who has ascended already, and 

 trod the lightness of the crystal climes. The spirit belongs to the 

 human lungs, by their sails filled with every sense, passion and 

 thought; by the trances of man, which are above the air, and by 

 the breadth of the supernal life, which does not disdain the concur- 

 rence of the lungs. And peace and greater powers than these be- 

 long to them in all and through all, as the gift of God, who breathes 

 his blessings upon his chosen. 



It is good to look to the ordinary language of mankind, not only 

 for the attestation of natural truths, but for their suggestion, be- 

 cause common sense transfers itself spontaneously into language, 

 and common sense in every age, is the ground of the truths which 

 can possibly be revealed to it. If there be no common sense to 

 welcome a truth, that truth, however vivid, is lost in the darkness 

 of the mind. It is of no use to speak it. If we set our ideas of 

 the lungs before the glass of language, they receive, to say the least, 

 a cordial welcome. For undoubtedly most of the words expressive 

 of life, are borrowed by analogy, either from the atmosphere, or its 

 organ the lungs. Thus, animation is the Latinized form of breath- 

 ing; an animal, a living creature, is a breathing creature; an ani- 

 mated body is a breathing body; the soul also is an anima, a 

 breath ; the mind or disposition is an animus, also a wind or breath; 

 we receive inspirations, which are the breathings in of high influ- 

 ences; we have aspirations therefrom, which are our voluntary 

 breathings back after the good which has been shown to us; we are 



