Words are the fortresses of thought. They enable us to realise our
dominion over what we have already overrun in thought; to make every
intellectual conquest the base of operations for others still
beyond."
"This," says Professor Max Muller, "is a most happy illustration,"
and he proceeds to quote the following, also from Sir William
Hamilton, which he declares to be even happier still.
"You have all heard," says Sir William Hamilton, "of the process of
tunnelling through a sandbank. In this operation it is impossible
to succeed unless every foot, nay, almost every inch of our progress
be secured by an arch of masonry before we attempt the excavation of
another. Now language is to the mind precisely what the arch is to
the tunnel. The power of thinking and the power of excavation are
not dependent on the words in the one case or on the mason-work in
the other; but without these subsidiaries neither could be carried
on beyond its rudimentary commencement. Though, therefore, we allow
that every movement forward in language must be determined by an
antecedent movement forward in thought, still, unless thought be
accompanied at each point of its evolutions by a corresponding
evolution of language, its further development is arrested."
Man has evolved an articulate language, whereas the lower animals
seem to be without one.
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