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CAUTION TO THE HASTY READER.

A table of contents being necessarily composed of general proposi-
tions, is, in a work like the present, as unintelligible, when not preceded
by the items in detail to which the general propositions refer, as a cata-
logue of plants is unintelligible to a person unacquainted with the plants.
This has prevented me from making as copious as I otherwise should the
above table, and the headings which precede each lecture. The table
and headings but glance at some of the main topic of the work, and
omit wholly collateral reflections and consequences, which as necessarily
accompany the main topics of every work as foliage accompanies the
production of fruit.

THE MEANING OF WORDS.

LECTURE I.

INTRODUCTORY AND EXPLANATORY.

CONTENTS.

1. Words signify either words or unverbal things.

2. Unverbal things are either sensible, intellectual or emotional.

3. The unverbal things of any one of the above three classes are untrans-

mutable into the unverbal things of any other of the classes except

verbally.

4. The unverbal things of the different classes seem homogeneous when

contemplated through the medium of words.

§ 1. LIKE the whistle of the winds, the lowing of oxen,
and the chirp of birds, words are mere sounds, apart from
the signification which they acquire conventionally or
otherwise; and to the people of one nation, the unaccus-
tomed language of another nation is still unmeaning
sounds. Words, whenever used significantly, must, there-
fore, signify other words or unverbal things, or both; but
so far as words signify other words, I shall not discuss
their meaning, how important soever the verbal meaning

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of words may be; for it constitutes a branch of learning which has been abundantly cultivated, and I can add nothing thereto. I design to speak of only the unverbal signification of words,-the signification which no explanatory words can reach, it underlying them all.

§ 2. I shall not, however, attempt to establish the unverbal meaning of any particular word, but simply attempt to discriminate words from unverbal things;-the discrimination applying to all words in common, and to all languages. The meaning of particular words, as matter, spirit, body, mind, etc., is constantly engaging the efforts of philosophers, who suppose they are engaged in profounder discussions than merely defining the signification of particular words;-but I disclaim the discussion, not because I deem it unimportant, but because the disclaimer will aid in showing, by contrast, the character of my design.

88. To analyze the meaning of words into verbal and unverbal, is, I suppose, new, and it is as useless as new, unless I am correct in the above assumption; that words are unmeaning sounds when they possess no ultimate signification that is unverbal. As this character of words pervades all I shall say, I bring it prominently into consideration at the commencement of our discussions, that if the assumption is fallacious, the fallacy may be readily and speedily detected. Words have, heretofore, been defined as signs of ideas, and the meaning of words has been sought in the ideas of which the words are said to be the

signs; but ideas are often composed partially or wholly of words; hence, to deem words signs of ideas, will make words' signs of other words, while I desire to contemplate words with reference only to their unverbal meaning. My design will, therefore, be best foreshadowed by saying that I shall deem words as signs of only unverbal things.

§ 4. But what are unverbal things? The term seems to convey no definite meaning when I occasionally use it in conversation. Indeed, after much effort, I am not always successful in making my hearers understand the difference that exists between words and unverbal things. We can eat unverbal things without thinking of their names, and we can drink, see, smell, and handle them; but to talk about them, so as to discriminate what is unverbal in the meaning of our words from what is verbal, is a difficulty which can be vanquished by only a strong effort of the intellect. Still it must be vanquished, for all I have to say relates to unverbal things, not to words; and if the discrimination between them be not fully seen, I shall be wholly unintelligible. The muster-roll of an army consists of words which name the unverbal components of the army, and when the names are called during a muster, each of the unverbal components answers to his name; could we, in the same way, call over all words and sentences of the English language, and each unverbal thing could present itself, as the word or sentence that refers to it is called, the muster would exhibit the unverbal things separated from the words that refer to them.

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Unverbal things are divisible into three classes-sensible, intellectual, and moral.

§ 1. But all unverbal things cannot be sensibly thus mustered, only a portion of them being cognizable by our senses. This portion I shall classify by itself, and call them sensations-sensible things, and sometimes physical things. Physical, wherever used by me, will be as a synonym of sensible; and both terms will severally be employed to denote what any one or more of my senses can reveal to me as a sight, sound, taste, feel or smell. By saying, therefore, of any thing that it is sensible or physical, I shall only mean that it is something cognizable by some one or more of my senses. To an uneducated deaf mute sensible things must appear in entire separation from words. He sees in the heavens neither sun, moon, stars, clouds, nor firmament, but he sees the unverbal things which the words name; and he sees on the earth, neither trees, grass, men, women, houses, streets, nor water, but he sees the unverbal things that those names designate. All sensible things possess thus an unverbal existence, and all that I require at present, is to discrimi nate what is unverbal from what is verbal.

82. Another portion of unverbal things, but not cognizable by my senses, I shall class by themselves, under the name of emotions, or internal feelings; though I may occasionally call them by other names. I refer to our appetites, desires, passions, etc. They are as discriminable

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