THEORY OF LANGUAGE. 



397 



neither case can we be said to think through the medium of 

 Language in any other sense than that which is implied in the 

 familiar fact, that one kind of thought readily suggests another 

 with which it has been associated. The cause of this error 

 seems to be, that our thoughts about words and things are in- 

 timately mixed, and the transitions from the one to the other 

 too rapid to be perceptible. Another cause is, that our most 

 considerate speculations are generally subsequent to some 

 looser movements of the mental faculties, in which many 

 words are revolved, for the aid which they afford by suggest- 

 ing a variety of views. Men, to be sure, very often imagine 

 themselves to be speaking when they are thinking ; but, in pro- 

 portion as this is the case, their thoughts are bewildered and 

 imperfect. Hence persons who are detected speaking aloud in 

 private, are ashamed of having employed language where it 

 could not be subservient to its appropriate uses. When we 

 observe a person's lips moving during his private thoughts, 

 we conclude him to be deficient in presence of mind, and sub- 

 jected for the moment to a certain degree of hallucination. 

 Reverie is a common failing of human nature. Even the 

 strongest minds are subject to it. That species of it which 

 is called verbal reverie is incident to those whose relish for 

 conversation is accompanied with vanity. It is also extreme- 

 ly prevalent among literary men, in consequence of a peculiar 

 share of their attention being directed to the meaning and 

 choice of words. We find a great difference betwixt the va- 

 lue which an illiterate man of natural good sense and the man 

 of letters attach to words. The former thinks of things with> 

 out words, and merely employs words from acquired habit 

 when he has occasion to address others : he is satisfied in this 

 case when he knows that he is fully understood, and despises the 

 direct study of words as an idle occupation. But, with litera- 

 Vol. VII. P. IL 3E rv 



