Page:Ralcy H. Bell - The Mystery of Words (1924).pdf/236

 Words that stand for other words—hazy symbols of empty signs—embarrass indeed all tongues.

There are two categories of words: one is founded on emotion, the other on reason. Our mental processes confuse the two. Words false and true—symbols of symbols and signs of signs—are jumbled together. All telling words are sparks of knowledge. All knowledge comes from collective and personal experience. Experience is an interpretation of energy. Therefore a word, or group of words, that means anything must identify some active or passive form of energy, or some class of energies. How many of our words do this, precisely?

The educational and ethical value to be gained from the progress already attained in physiological research, particularly with relation to the nervous system, is highly important to civilization, since it affects the individual and, therefore, the people as a whole.

As gray-matter is more amenable to the