ur senses; the thoughts of nature, to
borrow an expression of Oersted's, can be conceived by our reason only.
The first step toward this real knowledge is the '_naming of a thing_,
or the making a thing knowable;' and it is this step which separates man
forever from all other animals. For all naming is classification,
bringing the individual under the general; and whatever we know, whether
empirically or scientifically, we know it only by means of our general
ideas. Other animals have sensation, perception, memory, and, in a
certain sense, intellect; but all these, in the animal, are conversant
with single objects only. Man has, in addition to these, reason, and it
is his reason only that is conversant with general ideas.

'At the very point where man parts company with the brute world, at
the first flash of reason as the manifestation of the light within
us, there we see the true genius of language. Analyze any word you
like, and you will find that it expressed a general idea peculiar
to the individual to which the name belongs. What is the meaning of
moon?--the measurer. What is the meaning of sun?--the begetter ...

'If the serpent is called in Sanskrit _sarpa_, it is because it was
conceived under the general idea of creeping, an idea expressed by
the word _srip_. But the serpent was also called _ahi_ in Sanskrit,
in Greek _echis_ or _echidna_, in Latin _anguis_. This name is
derived from quite a different root and idea. The root is _ah_ in
Sanskrit, or _anh_, which means to press together, to choke, to
throttle. Here the distinguishing mark from which the serpent was
named was his throttling, and _ahi_ meant serpent, as expressing
the general idea of throttler. It is a curious root this _anh_, and
it still lives in several modern words. In Latin it appears as
_ango_, _anxi_, _anctum_, to strangle, in _angina_, quinsy, in
_angor_, suffocation. But _angor_ meant not only quinsy or
compression of the neck; it assumed a moral import, and signifies
anguish or anxiety. The two adjectives _angustus_, narrow, and
_anxius_, uneasy, both come from the same source. In Greek the root
retained its natural and material meaning; in _eggys_, near, and
_echis_, serpent, throttler. But in Sanskrit it was chosen with
great truth as the proper name for sin. Evil no doubt presented
itself under various aspects to