How shall we proceed to communicate our ideas to him?
Clearly there is but one possible way--namely, through his senses.
Outside of this means of bringing him in contact with us we can
have no communication with him. We, therefore, begin by showing
him sensible objects, and letting him understand that certain
words which we use correspond to those objects. After he has thus
acquired a small vocabulary, we make him understand that other
terms refer to relations between objects which he can perceive by
his senses. Next he learns, by induction, that there are terms
which apply not to special objects, but to whole classes of
objects. Continuing the same process, he learns that there are
certain attributes of objects made known by the manner in which
they affect his senses, to which abstract terms are applied.
Having learned all this, we can teach him new words by combining
words without exhibiting objects already known. Using these words
we can proceed yet further, building up, as it were, a complete
language. But there is one limit at every step. Every term which
we make known to him must depend ultimately upon terms the meaning
of which he has learned from their connection with special objects
of sense.
Pages:
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430