y are as dependent upon each
other as matter is on force, and as inseparable as light from energy.
Speech is the physical manifestation of which thought is the ultimate
force; it is a spoke in the chariot-wheels of consciousness; it is the
body of which thought is the soul.

CHAPTER XX.

Life and Consciousness--Consciousness and Emotion--Emotion and
Thought--Thought and Expression--Expression and Speech--The
Vocal Organs and Sound--Speech in City and Country--Music,
Passions, and Taste--Life and Reason.

At the beginning of life there is a consciousness which is not more
feeble than is the life with which it is associated; and as that spark
of life kindles into a flame, so that spark of consciousness kindles
into the "ego," and nowhere can a line be drawn at which it may be said
"here consciousness first intercepted life." But as the living form
develops organs and members, through the agency of the vital force,
whatever that may be, so consciousness develops into desires, emotion
and thought. Where shall the line be drawn which separates these
attributes? Standing in the centre, we look around and see the horizon
touching the plain on every side, and this appears to us as a great
circle, the centre of which is always occupied by the observer, and from
our standpoint we imagine that everything between us and that horizon
must be that distance from the centre; but as we move our point of view
from place to place, we move the circle with us, and yet we cannot find
the boundary line which marks this circle at any time. In a manner not
unlike this we pass from centre to centre of the circles of life, and
carry with us the circle, so that at no one point do we ever appear to
be much closer to the horizon than we were at any other point.

[Sidenote: LIFE AND CONSCIOUSNESS]

The classification of genera and species is in a great degree arbitrary;
but much less so than are these abstract characters of life and mind.
There is nowhere a line at which emotion stops and thought begins; there
is nowhere a line at which thought stops and expression begins; there is
nowhere a line at which expression stops and speech begins. These blend
into each other so that only by comparing the extremes can we discern a
difference.

The tenets of metaphysics have heretofore been made to harmonise with
the tenets of theology, and hence it is that we have learned to follow
the laws laid down by others and not to think