307.
9.

It is remarkable that this philosopher, who had so sublime conceptions of the powers of the human mind, and who has displayed such extraordinary acuteness in his investigations, has represented the formation of words, or the utterance of language, as equalling in speed the progress of our very thoughts; while, as we have seen, an other author, of great name, avers, that thought is "as instantaneous as the impression of light on the eye." Philosophy here too evidently nods.

In showing the advantage of words, as compared with pictures, Harris says, "If we consider the ease and speed with which words are formed,-an ease which knows no trouble or fatigue, and a _speed which equals the progress of our very thoughts_,[38]--we may plainly perceive an answer to the question here proposed, Why, in the common intercourse of men with men, imitations have been rejected, and symbols preferred."-- _Hermes_, p.336.Let us hear a third man, of equal note: "Words have been called _winged_; and they well deserve that name, when their abbreviations are compared with the progress which speech could make without these inventions; but, compared with the rapidity of thought, they have not _the smallest claim to that title_.

Philosophers have calculated the difference of velocity between sound and light; but who will attempt to calculate the difference between speech and thought!"-- _Horne Tooke's Epea Pteroenta_, Vol.

i, p.