Page:Ferrier's Works Volume 3 "Philosophical Remains" (1883 ed.).djvu/500

490 together with all its synonyms. No man will ever get at any idea who begins with a word. He must first get hold of the idea, and then he must see that a word is required to express it. This is the bane of all philosophical thinking, that we first take hold of certain words and then we attach certain ideas to them. No good can come of that procedure; indeed, infinite mischief has already proceeded out of it. We must first grasp the idea as a necessary truth, or thought we cannot help having, and then we must attach to it the word, for of course every idea must be fixed and expressed in words. Let us take the case, then, of this speculator. He may have lived two thousand years ago, or two months ago, or he may be living at the present moment; for time and the fashions of different times have no influence here, all necessary thoughts are the same at all times and in all places. He casts his eyes upon the universe, and he sees perpetual changes going on; at one moment he sees one thing, at the next moment he sees a different thing, and the same may be affirmed in regard to all his other senses and their intimations. Change, in short, forces itself on all sides upon his notice. He obtains the idea of change without any difficulty, and to this idea he attaches a word which expresses it; he calls it change: change, change prevails everywhere, that is the order of the day. To this speculator all objects are in a state of change; even those which appear in themselves to be permanent are in this state so far as they are his