Part 4 (2/2)
A word is both spiritual andan articulate form of the voice which, as Gthe has happily said, is the nearest spiritual of our bodily powers, taking significance froans, which are sy else in e, as reflected in awitness of an entity progressively apprehended by the finite spirits ofcreative power forevermore
The _in_articulate sound of the voice is the screaible to all hue continues to be ible to all souls, when modulated as in poetry into melody and rhythe was, perhaps, music of the deepest character, of which phase there is historic trace in the spoken Chinese, which has been perishi+ng for ages on the lips of a nation whose origin is lost in the depths of antiquity This spoken language is monosyllabic, and even the initial consonant often only a senificance from the _tone_ of the vowel; thus _lu_ in a low tone would have one , and so on as the tone ascends through the octave The inception of such a language iinal equipoise of a brain not yet despoiled of its first vigor through moral delinquency which is incident to the freedom to will of a finite spirit, and consequently the Chinese language was inevitably lost It would be interesting to enquire if those rare individuals a the Chinese who are expert in the spoken Chinese, are not of finest un could articulation by the organs of speech begin Thinking is the free individual act which associates the mind's activity and the sensibility of the heart with s, and must precede the use of words
A tient child when it wonders hoords should express thoughts Victorious analysis has never yet penetrated the whole h I think philologists and metaphysicians are on the way to it, and have reached sonificant sounds and articulations could not et their et theirs froans of speech are, first, the throat,--as the guttural organ is called in English because through it we take our food and send forth our voice,--is _out of sight_, _covered up_, _hidden_, the _central_ point where the voice starts; secondly, the lips, which are obvious, ainst which the voice strikes, are hard, stiff, and dead in coue which connects all together, the voice rolling over it and hardly articulated Hence the hard _c_ and _g_, and the rough aspirate _h_ are factors in all words signifying the beginning of self-originating o_), the causal, the central, covered, hidden; while the labials, _p_, _b_, _f_, _v_, are factors in all words expressing obviouslyphenomena; and the dentals, _d_, _t_, _s_, _z_, found in words expressive of stiff, hard, dead phenomena (the word _death_ is all but identical with the word _teeth_); separation and nu expressed by _s_ and _z_, which arethe vocal breath out between the separated teeth The liquids _r_ and _l_, _r_ being also a factor of words expressing indefinite beginning, (as _original_, _auroral_, _arise_, etc) are etically, to express y is exelow_, _M_ closes the lips without preventing the continuous sound of the voice fro the breath (or voice) out at the nose, syative aspects of Infinity
Of course I a only a hint in order to define what I nificant sounds, and that articulated sounds get their ans of speech
The historical origin of language is lost in the depths of antiquity, when the human race was yet in that equipoise of mind, heart, and self-activity, which in the process of evolution is only progressively recovered by the free agent, it being the office of education to restore it
The infant (that is, the _non-speaking_ child) in vision of the Eternal, only gradually becomes aware of the succession of ti,--
”The babe by its mother Lies bathed in joy, _Glide its hours uncounted_”
And Wordsworth says of ”the little child,--”
”On who all our lives to find;”
”By the vision splendid The youth is still attended;”
and
”Shades of the prison-house begin to close Upon the growing boy, Yet he beholds the light and whence it flows; He sees it in his joy: At length the ht of common day”
But this fall froy declares it to be, reprobation either intellectual or spiritual!
”Oh, joy that in our e that doth live, That nature yet reitive”
True education shall lead out the ily conscious of individuality, by means of the symbolism of the prison-house itself which is that correlation of necessary forces we call the material universe
The material universe, as I have already said, is the sy in God except his creativeness which is the spiritual essence that he shares with Huotten Son It is the body of God, and hue is the body of individualized Humanity, whose imperfections correspond with its various partial develop towards perfection in the forenius) ofe is to the social body, keeping individuals alive in history and literature; and as the material universe is symbolical of God's wisdom, so the echoes of the universe tossed froes of the wisdo of both natures, spiritual and material, makes an elemental sphere for the intellectual life, beyond the material; in short, makes a metaphysical world, in which the finite and infinite spirits commune with other finite spirits and with the Infinite One; for by words every minutest shade of individual consciousnessnot only an immortal communion of men possible, but a communion of God and Humanity also that shall have no end Heaven and earth pass away, but the Word of the Lord endureth forever
But I e at present, precisely because it takes us into the deepest ht, and our business with it now is practical, and concerns the nursery and kindergarten processes of culture
Looking at it superficially, speech is an ioes, is always taught by elders to the young generation eue in the nursery is an i, because it carries on the develop towards the fulness of Reason (which is seeing particular things in their proportionate relation to the whole)
In the whole course of a child's education, nothing is done which soto talk For to talk presupposes observation, discri The first three (observation, discrimination, and memory) are nearly passive reactions fro are creative acts of the hu analysis In fancy, the mind acts quite reckless and even defiant of nature's laws and order In understanding, it observes and uses the words to nas in the order of nature, and to express qualities and relations in connection,an echo-picture within of what they see without, is not so wonderful as the exaltation of delight produced by a story which is, as it were, triumphant over nature's laws, and reckless of its order; and the shocks of laughter hich they catch at a grotesque and ies made in their fancy by means of words
The predominance of fanciful talk to children which seems to be instinctive with all peoples, everywhere, is an indication that fancy is as legiti, to say the least It seeotten directly by the creative spirit, sons of a divine Father, who is the complex of Infinite Love, Infinite Wisdo, power of thinking, and executive ability are the shadow, or rather a living i are developed in tihted by Mother Goose absurdities, and still ht the facts and override the laws of nature It is a stubborn fact, of which materialistic positivists afford us no explanation, and which I commend to the consideration of Mr Mansell, and whoever else talks of the liht And I think it will be found that children who are talked to by Mother Goose and fairy-story tellers learn to talk enerally, with a power of entering into the minds of others co the huinative, who are nevertheless kind A great deal of theof others which causes unnecessary pain and social bitterness, checking generous furtherance of one another's good purposes, arises fro able to put ourselves in another's place And of course it is not without the highest reason that the Father of our Spirits has given fancy the advantage of the first start in ourin our psychological history cannot be denied by any nice observer I have known some parents ould not use Mother Goose or fairy stories with their children, but substituted therefor a experiments in physics,--the metamorphosis of insects and the classification of plants according to their differences Their children becarew up, were fine mathematicians, and were interested in mechanical inventions and natural history; but took comparatively little interest in political andin the social and patriotic affections, which also characterized their parents, ere theinative system not well modified by studies of nature's pheno reaction froinative method