Essays on Life 



or symbols, agreed upon between the parties 

 to whom they appeal as being attached invari- 

 ably to the same ideas, and because they are 

 being made as a means of communion between 

 one mind and another, for a memorandum 

 made for a person's own later use is nothing 

 but a communication from an earlier mind to 

 a later and modified one ; it is therefore in 

 reality a communication from one mind to 

 another as much as though it had been ad- 

 dressed to another person. 



We see, therefore, that the nature of the 

 outward and visible sign to which the inward 

 and spiritual idea of language is attached does 

 not matter. It may be the firing of a gun ; it 

 may be an old semaphore telegraph; it may 

 be the movements of a needle ; a look, a ges- 

 ture, the breaking of a twig by an Indian to 

 tell some one that he has passed that way : a 

 twig broken designedly with this end in view 

 is a letter addressed to whomsoever it may 

 concern, as much as though it had been written 

 out in full on bark or paper. It does not 

 matter one straw what it is, provided it is 

 agreed upon in concert, and stuck to. Just 



200 



