Essays on Life 



Professor Max Miiller admits that we share 

 with the lower animals what he calls an emo- 

 tional language, and continues that we may 

 call their interjections and imitations language 

 if we like, as we speak of the language of the 

 eyes or the eloquence of mute nature, but he 

 warns us against mistaking metaphor for fact. 

 It is indeed mere metaphor to talk of the 

 eloquence of mute nature, or the language of 

 winds and waves. There is no intercom- 

 munion of mind with mind by means of a 

 covenanted symbol ; but it is only an apparent, 

 not a real, metaphor to say that two pairs of 

 eyes have spoken when they have signalled 

 to one another something which they both 

 understand. A schoolboy at home for the 

 holidays wants another plate of pudding, and 

 does not like to apply officially for more. 

 He catches the servant's eye and looks at the 

 pudding; the servant understands, takes his 

 plate without a word, and gets him some. Is 

 it metaphor to say that the boy asked the 

 servant to do this, or is it not rather pedantry 

 to insist on the letter of a bond and deny its 



spirit, by denying that language passed, on the 



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