Art and Science 



does, but there really is some mysticism in 

 nature. 



To return, however, to terra firma. I be- 

 lieve I am right in saying that the essence 

 of language lies in the intentional conveyance 

 of ideas from one living being to another 

 through the instrumentality of arbitrary 

 tokens or symbols agreed upon, and under- 

 stood by both as being associated with the 

 particular ideas in question. The nature of 

 the symbol chosen is a matter of indifference ; 

 it may be anything that appeals to human 

 senses, and is not too hot or too heavy ; the 

 essence of the matter lies in a mutual cove- 

 nant that whatever it is it shall stand invari- 

 ably for the same thing, or nearly so. 



We shall see this more easily if we observe 

 the differences between written and spoken 

 language. The written word "stone," and 

 the spoken word, are each of them symbols 

 arrived at in the first instance arbitrarily. 

 They are neither of them more like the other 

 than they are to the idea of a stone which 

 rises before our minds, when we either see or 



hear the word, or than this idea again is like 



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