84. To reconcile these two positions
with each other, we must suppose that thinking by signs, or words, is a
process infinitely more rapid than speech.

[37] That generalization or abstraction which gives to similar things a
common name, is certainly no laborious exercise of intellect; nor does any
mind find difficulty in applying such a name to an individual by means of
the article. The general sense and the particular are alike easy to the
understanding, and I know not whether it is worth while to inquire which is
first in order. Dr. Alexander Murray says, "It must be attentively
remembered, that all terms run from a general to a particular sense. The
work of abstraction, the ascent from individual feelings to classes of
these, was finished before terms were invented. Man was silent till he had
formed some ideas to communicate; and association of his perceptions soon
led him to think and reason in ordinary matters."--_Hist. of European
Languages_, Vol. I, p. 94. And, in a note upon this passage, he adds: "This
is to be understood of primitive or radical terms. By the assertion that
man was silent till he had formed ideas to communicate, is not meant, that
any of our species were originally destitute of the natural expressions of
feeling or thought. All that it implies, is, that man had been subjected,
during an uncertain period of time, to the impressions made on his senses
by the material world, before he began to express the natural varieties of
these by articulated sounds. * * * * * * Though the abstraction which
formed such classes, might be greatly aided or supported by the signs; yet
it were absurd to suppose that the sign was invented, till the sense
demanded it."--_Ib._, p. 399.

[38] Dr. Alexander Murray too, In accounting for the frequent abbreviation
of words, seems to suggest the possibility of giving them the celerity of
thought: "Contraction is a change which results from a propensity to make
the signs _as rapid as the thoughts_ which they express. Harsh combinations
soon suffer contraction. Very long words preserve only the principal, that
is, the accented part. If a nation accents its words on the last syllable,
the preceding ones will often be short, and liable to contraction. If it
follow a contrary practice, the terminations are apt to decay."--History of
European Languages, Vol. I, p. 172.

[39] "We cannot form a distinct idea of any moral or intellectual quality,
unless we find some trace of it i