Essays on Life 



will do as well as another, if we can get other 

 people to choose the same and stick to them ; 

 it is the accepting and sticking to them that 

 matters, not the symbols. The whole power 

 of spoken language is vested in the invariable- 

 ness with which certain symbols are associated 

 with certain ideas. If we are strict in always 

 connecting the same symbols with the same 

 ideas, we speak well, keep our meaning clear 

 to ourselves, and convey it readily and accu- 

 rately to any one who is also fairly strict. If, 

 on the other hand, we use the same combina- 

 tion of symbols for one thing one day and for 

 another the next, we abuse our symbols in- 

 stead of using them, and those who indulge 

 in slovenly habits in this respect ere long lose 

 the power alike of thinking and of expressing 

 themselves correctly. The symbols, however, 

 in the first instance, may be anything in the 

 wide world that we have a fancy for. They 

 have no more to do with the ideas they serve 

 to convey than money has with the things that 

 it serves to buy. 



The principle of association, as every one 

 knows, involves that whenever two things 



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