[68] “Speech,” says Humboldt, “is the necessary condition of the thought of the individual.” The statement should at least be qualified by the word “now.” For some allusions to this interesting discussion, see Archbishop Whately’s _Logic_, ch. ii. M. de Bonald _assumed_ the reverse: “L’homme pense sa parole _avant_ de parler sa pensée.” See, too, Mill’s _Logic_, ii. 201. Charma, p. 134. Of course the short-hand of human intelligence is too infinitely rapid and abbreviated for us to be always able to read it off with facility; or, as Mr. Tennyson expresses it,
“Thought leapt out to wed with thought, Ere thought could wed itself to speech;”
but we are inclined to believe that without _some_ signs (not necessarily words--see Charma, _Essai sur le Langage_, p. 50) thought could not exist. When we cannot express what we mean, the reason probably is that we have no _clear_ meaning. “Die Sprache ist nichts anderes als der in die Erscheinung tretende Gedanke, und beide sind innerlich _nur eins und das selbe_.”--Becker, _Organism. der Sprache_, p. 2. “Sans signes nous ne penserions presque pas.”--Destutt de Tracy, _Idéologie_, pt. xvii. Plotinus distinctly asserts the contrary. Τὸ δὴ λογιζόμενον τῆς ψυχῆς οὐδένος πρὸς τὸ λογίζεσθαι δεόμενον σωματικοῦ ὀργάνου.--_Ennead_, v. 1, ch. 10.
[70] See Harper, _on the Force of the Greek Tenses_.
[71] _Der Ursprung der Sprache._ Berlin, 1851. We closely follow M. Renan’s exposition as given in his preface, pp. 31, sq. Heyse sums it up in one sentence, “Man kann mithin in dem Worte ein dreifaches Moment unterscheiden: 1. die Lautform; 2. das dadurch bezeichnete in Sprachbewusstsein liegende Merkmal der Vorstellung; 3. den reinen Begriff, welchen der denkende Geist in seiner Erhebung über die Individuelle Vorstellungsweise bildet, und als dessen Zeichen ihm gleichfalls das Wort dienen muss.”--Heyse, _System_, s. 160.
[72] Garnier, _Traité des facultés de l’Ame_. Renan, p. 90.
[73] _Motus animi._ In the origin of language, the spontaneous awakening of a sense of the _possibility_ of expressing thought by speech, was in point of fact simultaneous with the production of an objective Language as the material in which the awakened intelligence could find expression. Heyse, s. 47.