INTRODUCTORY. 1 5 



was aire; id J expressed in the above-quoted passage of 

 Burke, who divided words not into two but into three 

 classes. Language thus forms a common ground where lo. 

 our images or conceptions of the outer and the inner meethowe^^r, 



notliard 



and have mutually to be accommodated to each other, and fast. 

 There is another common meeting-ground between the 

 outer and the inner worlds, and that is to be found in 

 our bodily sensations. Many of these, though by no 

 means all, have as it were two sides, and can be referred 

 to either as things outside of us or as perceptions of 

 ourselves. Such is notably the case with the sensations 

 of colour or other visual and tactile sensations. Our 

 bodies are for each of us just as much the meeting- 

 ground of the outer and the inner world as are the 

 language and the words we make use of. 



I might in fact have introduced my readers to the n. 

 great difference which exists between the outer and the languaKe 

 inner worlds ot thought lust as easily by starting with a sensation 



' can furnish 



psychological analysis of our bodily sensations, of that a point of 

 physical envelope which encloses the inner and shuts out 

 the outer world. This is usually done in treatises on 

 psychology. The reason why I have preferred to start 

 with language is mainly this, that I am writing a history 

 of thought, and that the great body of human thought is 

 to be found in the written literatures of the different 

 nations. The other means which we possess for express- 

 ing our thoughts, such as the various processes employed 

 in the fine arts or in music, can, as we may have occasion 

 to see later on, only be introduced into a history of 

 thought to the extent that we are able to tind an 



