The analogy
between a musical instrument and the mind holds good here also. Art and
industry may get much music, of a sort, out of a penny whistle; but,
when all is done, it has no chance against an organ. The innate musical
potentialities of the two are infinitely different.
CHAPTER VI.
LANGUAGE--PROPOSITIONS CONCERNING NECESSARY TRUTHS.
Though we may accept Hume's conclusion that speechless animals think,
believe, and reason; yet, it must be borne in mind, that there is an
important difference between the signification of the terms when applied
to them and when applied to those animals which possess language. The
thoughts of the former are trains of mere feelings; those of the latter
are, in addition, trains of the ideas of the signs which represent
feelings, and which are called "words."
A word, in fact, is a spoken or written sign, the idea of which is, by
repetition, so closely associated with the idea of the simple or complex
feeling which it represents, that the association becomes indissoluble.
No Englishman, for example, can think of the word "dog" without
immediately having the idea of the group of impressions to which that
name is given; and conversely, the group of impressions immediately
calls up the idea of the word "dog."
The association of words with impressions and ideas is the process of
naming; and language approaches perfection, in proportion as the shades
of difference between various ideas and impressions are represented by
differences in their names.
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