An Introduction to a Biology 



reality there is none, it is desirable that some at- 

 tention should be paid to the relation between 

 words and thought. 



Ideally, words are the medium for the com- 

 munication of thought ; thought is the master and 

 words the servants ; thought is wealth, words the 

 coinage which facilitates its exchange. But actually 

 it is not so. By subtle and imperceptible manoeuvres 

 the word has often got the upper hand, so that 

 thought has come to be at the beck and call of 

 that which should be its slave. 



It is probable that thought and language mutually 

 interpenetrate each other, so that at the one extreme 

 there is pure language and at the other extreme 

 pure thought ; in the middle an equal mixture of 

 the two; and halfway between the middle and 

 thought, a preponderance of thought over language ; 

 and half-way between the middle and language, a 

 preponderance of language over thought. But for 

 purposes of exposition it will be necessary to make 

 an arbitrary excision of the intervening region, and 

 to speak of thought and language as if they were 

 distinct, mutually exclusive things. The problem 

 of the relation of language and thought resolves 

 itself when, reduced to its elements, into the problem 

 of the relation between the word and its meaning. 

 Here again, though the word and its meaning are 

 mutually interpenetrating and interpenetrated, it 

 will be necessary, for the same reason, to treat of 

 them as if they were mutually exclusive. 



Before I address myself to the problem I would 

 like to say a word to any philologist who happens 

 to read these words. I can see the smile on his 



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