Art and Science 



that is dreamed of, much like what we experi- 

 ence in dreams ourselves, and much doubt- 

 less like the mental images which must have 

 passed through the mind of my deaf and 

 dumb waiter? If they have mental images 

 in sleep, can we doubt that waking, also, they 

 picture things before their mind's eyes, and 

 see them much as we do too vaguely indeed 

 to admit of our thinking that we actually see 

 the objects themselves, but definitely enough 

 for us to be able to recognise the idea or 

 object of which we are thinking, and to con- 

 nect it with any other idea, object, or sign that 

 we may think appropriate ? 



Here we have touched on the second essen- 

 tial element of language. We laid it down, 

 that its essence lay in the communication of 

 an idea from one intelligent being to another ; 

 but no ideas can be communicated at all 

 except by the aid of conventions to which 

 both parties have agreed to attach an identical 

 meaning. The agreement may be very in- 

 formal, and may pass so unconsciously from 

 one generation to another that its existence 



can only be recognised by the aid of much 



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