the want or the negation of the opposite and _Positive_ Element or
Factor.

So in Thermotics, the Science of Heat, _Heat_ itself is the
_Positismus_ or _Something_ of the Domain; and _Cold_ the _Negatismus_
or Correlative _Nothing_. _Heat_ is, consequently, the analogue of
_Sound_ and _Light_; while _Cold_ is the analogue of _Silence_ and
_Darkness_.

In respect to the Domain of Mind, _Positive Mental Experience_
(Feelings, Thoughts, and Volitions, including self-consciousness) are
the _Positive_ Factor, the _Something_ of Mentality. _Inexperience_, the
lack of mental exercitation, hence _Ignorance_, is the _Negative_
Factor, or _Nothing_. The Correspondential Relationship or Analogy
existing between this Domain of the Universe and others already
mentioned is testified to in a remarkable manner by our use of Language.
We denominate the want of Feeling _Cold_ or _Frigidity_--in respect to
the Mind or the individual character. The absence of Thought and
Knowledge, or, in other words, Intellectual Barrenness, is called
_Darkness_ or _Obscurity_ of the Mind. While the lack of Will or Purpose
in the Mind is said to be the absence of _Tension_ or _Strain_ (the
great Musical term); and the Stillness or quiet hence resulting may be
appropriately designated as the _Silence_ of the Mind; Musical Silences
being, as pointed out above, technically termed Rests.

With this superficial exhibition of the most radical aspect of the _Echo
of Idea_ or _Repetition of Type_ which subsists between all the
departments of the Universe, I pass to the more specific consideration
of this Analogy as concerning the Domain of Thought and the Domain of
Language.

Setting aside from our present consideration _Silence_, the _Negative_
factor or _Negatismus_ of Language, and fixing our attention upon
_Sound_, the Positive factor or _Positismus_ of Language, we discover it
to be composed of two constituents, _Vowels_ and _Consonants_.

The _Vowel_ is the _Substance_, the Reality of Language, and the
_Consonant_ is the _Form_, the Limitation.

By _Vowel_ sound is meant the free or unobstructed, and as such
unlimited flow of the vocalized or sounding breath. Vowels are defined
in the simplest way as those sounds which are uttered with the month
open; as _a_ (ah) in F_a_ther, _o_ in r_o_ll, etc.

Consonants are, on the contrary, those sounds which are produced by the
crack of commencing or by obstructing, breaking, or cutting off the
sounding brea