Art and Science 



The following passages, again, are quoted 

 from Sir William Hamilton in Professor Max 

 Muller's own book, with so much approval as 

 to lead one to suppose that the differences 

 between himself and his opponents are in 

 reality less than he believes them to be: 



" Language," says Sir W. Hamilton, " is the 

 attribution of signs to our cognitions of things. 

 But as a cognition must have already been 

 there before it could receive a sign, conse- 

 quently that knowledge which is denoted by 

 the formation and application of a word must 

 have preceded the symbol that denotes it. A 

 sign, however, is necessary to give stability to 

 our intellectual progress to establish each 

 step in our advance as a new starting-point 

 for our advance to another beyond. A country 

 may be overrun by an armed host, but it is 

 only conquered by the establishment of for- 

 tresses. Words are the fortresses of thought. 

 They enable us to realise our dominion over 

 what we have already overrun in thought ; to 

 make every intellectual conquest the base of 

 operations for others still beyond." 



" This," says Professor Max Midler, " is a 



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