But an objection may be raised. "_Is_ the tongue, rather than the brain,
the best member that I have?" or (to put it in another way), "Surely a
man's _thoughts_ about the Universe have more value than his words about
it?"

The answer is, that we cannot separate them: and Newman has put this so
cogently that I must quote him, making no attempt to water down his
argument with words of my own. "Thought and speech are inseparable from
one another. Matter and expression are parts of one: style is a thinking
out into language. This is literature; not _things_, but the verbal
symbols of things; not on the other hand mere _words_, but thoughts
expressed in language. Call to mind the meaning of the Greek word which
expresses this special prerogative of Man over the feeble intelligence
of the lower animals. It is called Logos. What does Logos mean? It
stands both for _reason_ and for _speech_, and it is difficult to say
which means more properly. It means both at once: why? Because really
they cannot be divided.... When we can separate light and illumination,
life and motion, the convex and the concave of a curve, then will it be
possible for thought to tread speech under foot and to hope to do
without it--then will it be conceivable that the vigorous and fertile
intellect should renounce its own double, its instrument of expression
and the channel of its speculations and emotions." Words, in short, are
the outward and visible signs of thought: that, and something
more--since you may prove by experiment that the shortest and simplest
train of thought cannot be followed unless at every step the mind
silently casts it into the mould of words.

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