266 PSYCIIOLOG T. 



for all practical intents and purposes, as good a kind of 

 material in wliieli to think ? In fact, Ave may sus})ect them 

 to be for most purposes better than terms Avith a richer 

 imaginative coloring. The scheme of relationship and the 

 conclusion being the essential things in thinking, that kind 

 of mind-stuff which is handiest Avill be the best for the 

 purpose. Now words, uttered or unexpressed, are the 

 handiest mental elements we have. Not only are they very 

 rapidly revivable, but they are revivable as actual sen- 

 sations more easily than any other items of our ex- 

 perience. Did they not possess some such advantage as 

 this, it would hardly be the case that the older men are and 

 the more effective as thinkers, the more, as a rule, they 

 have lost their visualizing power and dej^end on words. 

 This was ascertained by Mr. Galton to be the case with 

 members of the Royal Society. The present Avriter ob- 

 serves it in his own person most distinctly. 



On the other hand, a deaf and dumb man can weave 

 his tactile and visual images into a system of thought quite 

 as effective and rational as that of a word-user. TJw 

 question whether thought is possible ivithout language has 

 been a favorite topic of discussion among philosophers. 

 Some interesting reminiscences of his childhood by Mr. 

 Ballard, a deaf-mute instructor in the National College at 

 Washington, show it to be perfectly possible. A few 

 paragraphs may be quoted here. 



"In consequence of the loss of my hearing in infancy, I was de- 

 barred from enjoying the advantages which children in the full pos- 

 session of their senses derive from the exercises of the common primary 

 school, from the every-day talk of their school-fellows and playmates,, 

 and from the conversation of their parents and other grown-up persons. 



"I could convey my thouglits and feelings to my parents and 

 brothers by natural signs or pantomime, and I could understand what 

 they said to me by the same medium: our intercourse being, however,, 

 confined to the daily routine of home affairs and hardly going beyond 

 the circle of my own observation. . . . 



"My father adopted a course which he thought would, in some 

 measure, compensate me for the loss of my hearing. It was that of 

 taking me with him when business required him to ride abroad ; and 

 be took me more frequently than he did my brothers ; giving, as the 

 reason for his apparent partiality, that they could acquire inforinatiou 



