LANGUAGE AND SCIENCE 211

with respect to the origin of human speech. In the absence

of all direct evidence only more or less plausible hypotheses

are possible. One thing, however, we regard as quite certain,

and that is that thought, the verbum mentale, was anterior

to the verbum oris. The phenomena presented by deaf-

mutes are sufficient to show that abstract ideas can exist

without spoken words, and that oral terms are the conse-

quence of thought, ordinary experience suffices to prove.

When, in the cultivation of any new science or art, newly-

observed facts or newly -devised processes give rise to new

conceptions, new terms are invented to give expression to

such conceptions. Thus new words arise as a consequent,

and not as an antecedent, of such 'intellectual action. New

terms are always fitted to fresh ideas, and not fresh ideas

to new terms. Whoever attentively follows the mental

development of a child, will see that in it also, notions are

formed spontaneously, and often give rise to new words

of the child's own coining.

The antecedence of thought is also shown by the

wonderful rapidity far exceeding the rapidity of speech

with which the mind may detect a fallacy in an argument

And such detection is always due to some reason our mind

perceives to be fatal, it may be, to a long chain of reasoning.

A mere cry or gesture of negation may be the sign of

intellectual perceptions which would require more than one

sentence to fully express, but which are perceived too

rapidly for even the mental repetition of the words of such

sentences.

We have seen how deaf-mutes may spontaneously evolve

a gesture-language, through which they can convey ideas

to one another. Dr. W. W. Ireland has recorded* the

case of a boy who could not speak ordinary words, and

yet had invented a few of his own, to which he attached

Idiocy and Imbecility, p. 276. Churchill, 1877.

with respect to the origin of human speech. In the absence

of all direct evidence only more or less plausible hypotheses

are possible. One thing, however, we regard as quite certain,

and that is that thought, the verbum mentale, was anterior

to the verbum oris. The phenomena presented by deaf-

mutes are sufficient to show that abstract ideas can exist

without spoken words, and that oral terms are the conse-

quence of thought, ordinary experience suffices to prove.

When, in the cultivation of any new science or art, newly-

observed facts or newly -devised processes give rise to new

conceptions, new terms are invented to give expression to

such conceptions. Thus new words arise as a consequent,

and not as an antecedent, of such 'intellectual action. New

terms are always fitted to fresh ideas, and not fresh ideas

to new terms. Whoever attentively follows the mental

development of a child, will see that in it also, notions are

formed spontaneously, and often give rise to new words

of the child's own coining.

The antecedence of thought is also shown by the

wonderful rapidity far exceeding the rapidity of speech

with which the mind may detect a fallacy in an argument

And such detection is always due to some reason our mind

perceives to be fatal, it may be, to a long chain of reasoning.

A mere cry or gesture of negation may be the sign of

intellectual perceptions which would require more than one

sentence to fully express, but which are perceived too

rapidly for even the mental repetition of the words of such

sentences.

We have seen how deaf-mutes may spontaneously evolve

a gesture-language, through which they can convey ideas

to one another. Dr. W. W. Ireland has recorded* the

case of a boy who could not speak ordinary words, and

yet had invented a few of his own, to which he attached

Idiocy and Imbecility, p. 276. Churchill, 1877.