280 ELEMENTS OF SCIENCE 



serves to express what in English requires the three 

 words " I have loved." 



How the various sounds which in different languages 

 express different ideas are agglutinated, isolated, and 

 changed in form or " inflected," is a matter which cannot 

 be gone into here. For such further information the 

 reader is referred to the various works on the science of 

 language, or Philology. 



But objections to the essential unity of language have 

 been made because certain differences exist in the mode 

 of giving expression to the same ideas. Thus, it has been 

 affirmed that some languages are defective as regards 

 the substantive verb, and that therefore those who speak 

 it have not the idea of existence. But if there are tribes 

 of men who cannot say, " He is sitting," " She is stand- 

 ing," " It is falling/' it is quite enough if they can say, 

 " He sits," or " Stands she " or " It falls." Such expres- 

 sions show that they have the idea. It is a man's mean- 

 ing, and his power of making that meaning evident, which 

 is alone important, the system of signs by which he 

 expresses it is a relatively trivial matter. 



It is not a multitude of words which constitutes the 

 perfection of language. Some exceptionally endowed 

 minds can, with a few pregnant words, bring to the 

 minds of others, perceptions which could be conveyed 

 by inferior natures only by means of long and laboured 

 discourses. Therefore, the minimum of language which 

 can co-exist with the due expression of thought is the 

 best. 



The ultimate facts as to language may be thus 



(i) Thought is the root of every sort of intellectual 

 language, and is anterior to outward expression of what- 

 ever kind. 



