Art and Science 



are in reality only talking to ourselves. The 

 person or animal spoken to is half the battle 

 a half, moreover, which is essential to there 

 being any battle at all. It takes two people 

 to say a thing a sayee as well as a sayer. 

 The one is as essential to any true saying as 

 the other. A. may have spoken, but if B. has 

 not heard, there has been nothing said, and he 

 must speak again. True, the belief on A.'s 

 part that he had a bond fide sayee in B., saves 

 his speech qua him, but it has been barren 

 and left no fertile issue. It has failed to fulfil 

 the conditions of true speech, which involve 

 not only that A. should speak, but also that 

 B. should hear. True, again, we often speak 

 of loose, incoherent, indefinite language ; but 

 by doing so we imply, and rightly, that we 

 are calling that language which is not true 

 language at all. People, again, sometimes 

 talk to themselves without intending that any 

 other person should hear them, but this is 

 not well done, and does harm to those who 

 practise it. It is abnormal, whereas our con- 

 cern is with normal and essential character- 

 istics ; we may, therefore, neglect both delirious 



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