LANGUAGE AND SCIENCE 205

are trying to make out what they really are. When one

man, having made sure, cries out " Grouse ! " it is as true and

clear an expression of a judgment as would be the four

words, " Those birds are grouse." If it were only possible

to follow out that mode without the danger of confusion, then

the use of monosyllables to express whole sentences, instead

of being inferior, would be the very highest ideal of language.

This reflexion brings us naturally to the consideration of

different forms of language and its possible origin. But there

is one form of language which exists, abundantly in low

as well as in higher races of mankind, and that is meta-

phorical language. But what is metaphor, and what sort

of being must that have been which first employed it?

Had not the intellect the power of apprehending, through

the senses, and expressing, by bodily signs, what is beyond

the reach of mere sense-perception, metaphor would not and

could not exist. Neither could it exist if thought was the

mere outcome of language and followed it, instead of the

opposite. It is precisely because speech is too narrow for

thought, and because words are too few to adequately make

known the ideas of the mind, that metaphor exists. It is

interesting also to note that figurative, metaphorical language

is natural, and especially abundant amongst various savage

and semi-savage tribes. Few things would be more unwise

than to take the plainest and most material meanings of

primitive words as being necessarily their only meanings.

Figure or metaphor has been occasioned by poverty and

sterility of visible and audible signs, but their cause is the

wealth and fruitfulness of thought. Probably many primitive

terms had double meanings from the first.

As Carlyle has said, " An un metaphorical style you shall

seek in vain, for is not your very attention a stretching

to ? " The sensuous element in language is but a necessary

consequence of our animal nature, and the necessity of

are trying to make out what they really are. When one

man, having made sure, cries out " Grouse ! " it is as true and

clear an expression of a judgment as would be the four

words, " Those birds are grouse." If it were only possible

to follow out that mode without the danger of confusion, then

the use of monosyllables to express whole sentences, instead

of being inferior, would be the very highest ideal of language.

This reflexion brings us naturally to the consideration of

different forms of language and its possible origin. But there

is one form of language which exists, abundantly in low

as well as in higher races of mankind, and that is meta-

phorical language. But what is metaphor, and what sort

of being must that have been which first employed it?

Had not the intellect the power of apprehending, through

the senses, and expressing, by bodily signs, what is beyond

the reach of mere sense-perception, metaphor would not and

could not exist. Neither could it exist if thought was the

mere outcome of language and followed it, instead of the

opposite. It is precisely because speech is too narrow for

thought, and because words are too few to adequately make

known the ideas of the mind, that metaphor exists. It is

interesting also to note that figurative, metaphorical language

is natural, and especially abundant amongst various savage

and semi-savage tribes. Few things would be more unwise

than to take the plainest and most material meanings of

primitive words as being necessarily their only meanings.

Figure or metaphor has been occasioned by poverty and

sterility of visible and audible signs, but their cause is the

wealth and fruitfulness of thought. Probably many primitive

terms had double meanings from the first.

As Carlyle has said, " An un metaphorical style you shall

seek in vain, for is not your very attention a stretching

to ? " The sensuous element in language is but a necessary

consequence of our animal nature, and the necessity of