Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 8.djvu/324

 by signature, and therefore an action of will; and since the teacher has also received with belief that which he hands on, we may claim common belief also as one of the forms of the social will which give to words as to other signs their meaning.

44. But this is noticeable in a marked manner when we are dealing with special signs and special words to which belief, or allied forms of a feeling will, such as reverence or inspiration, lend a special and heightened meaning. To a large extent this occurs with ceremonies and the mystical words connected with them, which are held to be sacred and to act in a supernatural manner. Words of which the true meaning is not understood, e.g., when they are taken from a foreign language, thus get the significance of containing a power which far surpasses the power of ordinary words in arousing human feelings and sensations. Faith declares that they act upon Nature, or upon gods and demons which through and for faith are present in Nature. Thus common superstition has characteristically taken the uncomprehended words of the Eucharist, “Hoc est corpus meum,” and as “Hocus pocus” simply made them into a charm, which belongs like the witches’ multiplication-table to the necessary apparatus of those who appear to realise the impossible. So too the theologians do not think of the Creator as immediate originator of heaven and earth, as it were through his nature or will alone, but he must speak the creative fiat (this is in no way peculiar to the Judaic-Christian idea; “in the Indian and Persian religious systems the creative power of the word is placed at the apex of being”; the sound is “Brahma,” it is said in the Mimansa, through the spoken word Parabrahma creates the universe. “When Ahriman, the wielder of death, stormed through the earth, spoke Ormuzd the Honover, the pure, the holy, the swift-working word, to maintain and protect creation” (Bastian).). Thus speculation, attaching itself to such naive ideas, makes the word itself into God, or into the revealed Son of God; and as the word can create all and change all it creates and changes itself into flesh, and moves as man among men. But even beyond the sphere of the miraculous a mysterious actual value is attributed to the word, and to certain words therefore a good or evil significance as omens. And the power of the spoken word, especially in public speaking, depends largely upon the fact that certain words and turns of speech are endowed by the hearer with an additional meaning which arouses his feelings—his love, reverence, enthusiasm; his hatred, horror, wrath. Think,