REASONING. 357 



How, then, does the general purpose arise ? It arises 

 as soon as the notion of a sign as stick, apart from any par- 

 ticular import, is born ; and this notion is born by dis- 

 sociation from the outstanding portions of a number of 

 concrete cases of signification. The 'yelp,' the 'beg,' the 

 * rat,' differ as to their several imports and natures. They 

 agree only in so far as they have the same use — to be signs, 

 to stand for something more important than themselves. 

 The dog whom this similarity could strike would have 

 grasped the sign per se as such, and would probably 

 thereupon become a general sign-maker, or speaker in 

 the human sense. But how can the similarity strike 

 him? Not without the juxtaposition of the similars (in 

 virtue of the law we have laid down (p. 506), that in order 

 to be segregated an experience must be repeated with 

 varying concomitants) — not unless the 'yelj3' of the dog 

 at the moment it occurs recalls to him his ' beg,' by the 

 delicate bond of their subtle similarity of use — not till 

 then can this thought flash through his mind : " Why, yelp 

 and beg, in spite of all their unlikeness, are yet alike in 

 this : that they are actions, signs, which lead to important 

 boons. Other boons, any boons, may then be got by other 

 signs !" This reflection made, the gulf is passed. Animals 

 probabl}^ never make it, because the bond of similarity is 

 not delicate enough. Each sign is drowned in its import, 

 and never awakens other signs and other imports in iux - 

 taposition. The rat-hunt idea is too absorbingly interest- 

 ing in itself to be interrupted by anything so uucontiguoua 

 to it as the idea of the ' beg for food,' or of ' the door-open 

 yelp,' nor in their turn do these awaken the rat-hunt idea. 



In the human child, however, these rujjtures of contigu- 

 ous association are very soon made ; far off cases of sign- 

 using arise when we make a sign now ; and soon language 

 is launched. The child in each case makes the discovery 

 for himself. No one can help him except by furnishing 

 him with the conditions. But as he is constituted, the con- 

 ditions will sooner or later shoot together into the result.* 



* There are two other conditions of language in the human being, addi- 

 tional to association by similarit}^ that assist its action, or rather pave the 

 way for it. These are: first, the great natural loquacity; and, second, the 



