390 OBSERVATIONS ON THE 



ginal objects must have been at some time presented, in order 

 that the words may be understood ; but, when once understood, 

 they perform their office without that aid. 



All thoughts which are communicated, must either be affec- 

 tions received immediately from the perceptions of external 

 objects, or affections which become communicable in conse- 

 quence of certain relations originally existing betwixt them and 

 external objects. 



In communicating thought, we sometimes merely recall 

 thoughts which had on some former occasion existed in the 

 mind of the person addressed ; at other times we convey new 

 ones. This last is the case when we give a person new infor- 

 mation. 



It is not, however, possible, that any thought which is com- 

 municated by words should consist of new materials ; because 

 every word, in order to serve the purpose of communication, 

 must be previously understood. All new thoughts, therefore, 

 communicated by language, consist of new conjunctions of ideas, 

 produced by new arrangements among the words that are used. 

 From differences of arrangement given to the same ideas, new 

 feelings may arise. The varieties of sentiment, depending on 

 the varieties of these arrangements, constitute, in a great mea- 

 sure, the varieties of character and of intellect that exist among 

 mankind. By the use of language, as subservient to these ends, 

 the great fabrics of science and literary taste are erected. 



We must, therefore, understand by the communication of 

 thought to which language is subservient, the act of commu- 

 nicating new arrangements of such ideas as were formerly pos- 

 sessed. The resulting feelings are subsequent consequences, 

 which we have it in view to produce ; but the conveyance of 

 them is not the immediate act of language itself. 



Mr 



