St. Paul weekly Minnesotian. (St. Paul) 1860-1861, 1860-11-09
IDEAS.

IDEAS are the golden money OF the mind,
and words are.the bank notes that repre-
sent this money. Ideas are not valuable
in themselves SO much, as for what may
be obtained by means of theni--that Is
things, realities; and words are valuable
only in so far as they represent ideas and
are practically convertible into the same.
Language then represents ideas, as paper
money does gold; and ideas represent
things as money does raiuc, realities, things.
In either case, We see things to he the
only really valuable objects. But as they
are often unwieldy in themselves, and
cannot be transferred, we must invent
something to represent them. Hence,
arise money and ideas, which again are
represented by the lighter articles Of paper
notes and airy words, respectively.
We might conceive Of state Of being
in which there were no words, nor even
ideas, strictly speaking; but in which
things themselves should be exchanged, in
paut0mime, TO carry on {. conversation.
Two men talking about horse, buggy,
dog and gun, for example, would Sim
ply exchange these several things between
themselves in rapid succession, instead OF
the words horse, buggy, dog, gun, repre-
senting these several ideas. But this, we
admit, might be slightly ludicrous per
Torrance, MS well as decidedly laborlous,
were the conversation long or an ANNA
ted one. Besides, few men possess half the
things they talk about, or even 1.-THE OF
them. so that conversations on this plan
would have to be extremely limited in their
range. II would be like man pretending
to do business upon his own capital
alone, which, now a-days, is considered OBJ
sole!e.
But allowing persons to use things that
DO not belong to them, as they use other
peoples money 70 do business with, there
would still be difficulties. Some things are
entirely too large to be handled, or ex-
changed, as we have represented, without
at least the aid of heavy machinery. 9th
ers again are stationary and incapable OF
being moved to meet the mental require
ments Of the race-and what would we do
with such objects as the sea and mountains,
stars and comets, which can neither be adj.
equateiy grasped by any human power,
nor detained to suit our convenience?
Still further, objects, or even individuals,
might be demanded by several parties at
the same time, for conversational purposes.
A popular man would run the risk of being
torn into pieces by his friends. We would
all be subjected to the rude indignity Of
being dragged about, our rest broken and
our clothes soied, merely TO satisfy the
whim OF any vulgar person who might
choose to make us the object Of remark.
Gossips would have 10 enlarge their quar-
ters, to hold all they talk about A good
result might be that they would tire soon
er in moving everything by hand than in
moulding words of dctractiou with the
tongue, and possibly would be somewhat
abashed by the personal presence Of those
they sought TO injurc. But how much
better to be able TO stay at home and at
tend to ones business, and, ii it must be
so, ct a " basting" in the gossip's circle
through ones image or representative idea
But it is difficult to conceive even how a
conversation could be carried on as we
have represented, when the objects of it
were large, complex or composite. II, as
il has been affirmed, man would require
aD acre Of surface upon which to build a
machine that would have all the move
ments Of the human hand, it is no less
true that he would require whole cont.
nent upon which to represent physically,
so far as it could be SO represented, com
pick idea, or combination of the magma.
ton, such as is frequently met with in
good writing, For the purpose intended,
these ideas, hurled from the mind with
wonderful rapidity and power linked to.
gether as the logical chain--shot of one
who forces any or all the objects of nature
10 be his miSsiles-serve just as good and
eifectual purpose as would the physical
reality at large. Indeed, better purpose,
for man could not deal with the reality of
that which he uses to Symbolic the pur-
poses of his mind he would be lost, he
would be overwhelmed amid the rehlity of
that which he uses as signs or figures in
great problems and statements Of mind.
We sometimes, for the novelty Of the thing,
when listening to q speaker, imagine him
hurting the physical reality of what his
language represents at the heads of his al.
dience, in the exact order and combination
IN which it flows from his mind. The
mere conception Of this may be somewhat
grotesque as well as monstrous, but it
brings wildly before Us the magical pow,
er OF language, which can in a moment
marshal these things in all their reality
and value for intellectual purposes, before
the mind, and cause them to move along
like a vast panorama in which the mind Of
the speaker has lodged the sentiments and
views it would impress upon the audience
Thus Gods whole universe, in all its
vaStness and all its detail, may become
commodity Of intellectual merchandise
Genuine, truthful IDEAS are the incOrrupti-
bile golden representatives Of TINS universe
Of substaace-they are the solid banking
basis upon which we may safely issue the
lighter currency Of words, with which
transactions and exchange NAV be carried
on. But let as see that-the gold in our
mental vaults is genuine and pure, and
beware that our paper issues do not exceed
its amount. In either case we might run
the risk OF intellectual bankrupt cy We
would not, at least, safely risk run
BY the way, you may have noticed the
effects both interesting and amusing of an
over issue of the kind we have referred to.
How certain hot and hasty individual
has got himself into "iix," and brought
on most striking "crisis" by such
means.