ii.] THE FUNCTION OF THE INTELLECT 159 



ing homeward. An intelligence which reflects is one 

 that originally had a surplus of energy to spend, over 

 and above practically useful efforts. It is a conscious- 

 ness that has virtually reconquered itself. But still the 

 virtual has to become actual. Without language, in- 

 telligence would probably have remained riveted to the 

 material objects which it was interested in considering. 

 It would have lived in a state of somnambulism, outside 

 itself, hypnotized on its own work. Language has greatly 

 contributed to its liberation. The word, made to pass 

 from one thing to another, is, in fact, by nature transferable 

 and free. It can therefore be extended, not only from one 

 perceived thing to another, but even from a perceived thing 

 to a recollection of that thing, from the precise recollection 

 to a more fleeting image, and finally from an image fleet- 

 ing, though still pictured, to the picturing of the act by 

 which the image is pictured, that is to say, to the idea. 

 Thus is revealed to the intelligence, hitherto always turned 

 outwards, a whole internal world — the spectacle of its 

 own workings. It required only this opportunity, at 

 length offered by language. It profits by the fact that the 

 word is an external thing, which the intelligence can catch 

 hold of and cling to, and at the same time an immaterial 

 thing, by means of which the intelligence can penetrate 

 even to the inwardness of its own work. Its first business 

 was indeed to make instruments, but this fabrication is 

 possible only by the employment of certain means which 

 are not cut to the exact measure of their object, but go 

 beyond it and thus allow intelligence a supplementary — 

 that is to say disinterested work. From the moment that 

 the intellect, reflecting upon its own doings, perceives itself 

 as a creator of ideas, as a faculty of representation in 

 general, there is no object of which it may not wish to have 

 the idea, even though that object be without direct re- 



