Art and Science 



" meat," or " water," but there are many that 

 readily learn what ideas they ought to attach 

 to these symbols when they are presented to 

 them. It is idle to say that a cat does not 

 know what the cat's-meat man means when 

 he says "meat." The cat knows just as well, 

 neither better nor worse than the cat's-meat 

 man does, and a great deal better than I 

 myself understand much that is said by some 

 very clever people at Oxford or Cambridge. 

 There is more true employment of language, 

 more bond fide currency of speech, between a 

 sayer and a sayee who understand each other, 

 though neither of them can speak a word, 

 than between a sayer who can speak with the 

 tongues of men and of angels without being 

 clear about his own meaning, and a sayee 

 who can himself utter the same words, but 

 who is only in imperfect agreement with the 

 sayer as to the ideas which the words or 

 symbols that he utters are intended to convey. 

 The nature of the symbols counts for nothing ; 

 the gist of the matter is in the perfect har- 

 mony between sayer and sayee as to the sig- 

 nificance that is to be associated with them. 



193 N 



