388 PART V. WORKING STAGE. 



precedes it.) These numbers, especially from 1 to 20, and even 

 1 to 400, would enable us, according to the context, to express 

 differences of degree and number as well as difference in order 

 of fact. Moreover, the ordinal place of a letter in a word 

 would also convey an ordinal meaning. All this would hold 

 mutatis mutandis of consonants whose root meanings would 

 be identical with those of the vowels. 



4. The twenty vowels and the twenty consonants would be 

 arranged in accordance with a strict phonetic scheme and fixed 

 by phonograph. This accomplished, the successive vowels would 

 have assigned to them a meaning corresponding to the, say, 

 twenty hierarchically ordered categories of facts, and the suc- 

 cession of consonants would possess the same signification. 

 For instance, the meaning implied in a if a be the first letter- 

 would be a universal one, and accordingly we should have, 

 for example, at ethereology, ag molecular physics, molar 

 physics ... to biology, morals, art, etc. We may further 

 assume all knowledge to be divided into kingdom, phylum, 

 class, order, family, genus, species, variety, and individual. 

 Assume that a root word consists, unabbreviated, of eight 

 letters. Then the number and places of the letters will convey 

 the inherent meaning. Should there be more than twenty of 

 a category, the vowel or consonant is doubled to express the 

 number, up to 20 times 20, or four hundred. However, the 

 need for double consonants or vowels would seldom occur. So 

 far as the meaning of the letters composing it are concerned, 

 the word "mammal" in the language of to-day is a bare jumble 

 of sounds. In the scientific language it would consist, say, 

 of the letters e (animal), b (nth phylum), o (mth class), or ebo. 

 Or if we thought of a tiger, we would, perhaps, have the word 

 ebonimu, indicating by its successive letters kingdom, phylum, 

 class, order, family, genus, and species. Millions of significant 

 terms could be framed in this wise, multitudes of them con- 

 sisting of one syllable. Granted ingenuity equal to the needs 

 of the case which is assuming much, we admit and a lan- 

 guage of a scientific character may be constructed, a language 

 where the letters of the alphabet reflect the scientifically deter- 

 mined categories of facts. Such a language, too, would not 

 only image the sciences; it would compel wide and sound 

 information, clear and scientific thinking, lucid and terse ex- 

 pression, and would be readily acquired, and difficult to forget, 

 to misunderstand, or to pervert. Nothing short of such a result 

 could satisfy the methodologist. Science is already far advanced, 

 and a scientific language has therefore become possible,; but 

 if it be contended that allowance should be made for the cor- 

 rection of errors, the reply is that for this also systematic 

 provision might be made. However, it should be remembered 

 that, to judge by the last hundred years, changes in language 

 proceed with extreme slowness. Perhaps, too, every century 



