LINGUISTIC.
All that I have to record under this head is an observation of my own, made within the last few years, which seems hitherto to have escaped notice. Yet, that it is worthy of consideration, is attested by Seneca's utterance:[1] Mira in quibusdam rebus verborum proprietas est, et consuetudo sermonis antiqui quaedam efficacissimis notis signat. Lichtenberg too says: "If one thinks much oneself, one finds a good deal of wisdom deposited in language. It is hardly likely that we have laid it all there ourselves, but rather that a great deal of wisdom really lies there."
In many, perhaps in all, languages, the action even of those bodies which are without intellect, nay of inanimate bodies, is expressed by the words "to will," so that the existence of a will in these bodies is thus taken for granted; but they are never credited with a faculty for knowing, representing, perceiving or thinking: I know of no expression which conveys this.
Seneca, when speaking of lightning shot down from heaven, says:[2] "In his, ignibus accidit, quod arboribus: quarum cacumina, si tenera sunt, ita deorsum trahi possunt, ut etiam terram attingant; sed quum permiseris, in locum suum exsilient. Itaque non est quod eum spectes cujusque rei habitum, qui illi non ex voluntate est. Si ignem permittis ire quo velit, caelum repetet."[3] In a more
- ↑ Seneca, "Epist." 81.
- ↑ Ibid. "Quaest. nat." ii. 24.
- ↑ "Here it is the same with fire as with trees shose supple tops can be drawn down so far that they even touch the ground. But when you release them, they will spring up into their place. Therefore, it is inappropriate to have in mind the case of something that position which is not in accordance with its will. If you allow fire to go whither it will, it will soar to heaven." (Wikisource contributor note)
