he instruments of such
representation. Words, then, which represent thoughts, are things in
themselves; but, as signs, they are relative to other things, as being the
instruments of their communication or preservation. They are relative also
to him who utters them, as well as to those who may happen to be instructed
or deceived by them. "Was it Mirabeau, Mr. President, or what other master
of the human passions, who has told us that words are things? They are
indeed things, and things of mighty influence, not only in addresses to
the passions and high-wrought feelings of mankind, but in the discussion of
legal and political questions also; because a just conclusion is often
avoided, or a false one reached, by the adroit substitution of one phrase
or one word for an other."--_Daniel Webster, in Congress_, 1833.

2. To speak, is a moral action, the quality of which depends upon the
motive, and for which we are strictly accountable. "But I say unto you,
that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof
in the day of judgement; for by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by
thy words thou shalt be condemned."--_Matt._, xii, 36, 37. To listen, or to
refuse to listen, is a moral action also; and there is meaning in the
injunction, "Take heed what ye hear."--_Mark_, iv, 24. But why is it, that
so much of what is spoken or written, is spoken or written in vain? Is
language impotent? It is sometimes employed for purposes with respect to
which it is utterly so; and often they that use it, know not how
insignificant, absurd, or ill-meaning a thing they make of it. What is
said, with whatever inherent force or dignity, has neither power nor value
to him who does not understand it;[28] and, as Professor Duncan observes,
"No word can be to any man the sign of an idea, till that idea comes to
have a real existence in his mind."--_Logic_, p. 62. In instruction,
therefore, speech ought not to be regarded as the foundation or the essence
of knowledge, but as the sign of it; for knowledge has its origin in the
power of sensation, or reflection, or consciousness, and not in that of
recording or communicating thought. Dr. Spurzheim was not the first to
suggest, "It is time to abandon the immense error of supposing that words
and precepts are sufficient to call internal feelings and intellectual
faculties into active exercise."--_Spurzheim's Treatise on Education_, p.
94.

3. But to this it may be replied, When God