The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-06-07

which we have been wont to consider ever
lasting. And the bookstands are full of
new romances, the scenes of which are
placed hundred or more years ahead of
the present era, portraying social and
economical conditions of more or less
extraordinary character.
But. after all, the interesting thing in
the world is man. What changes are going
to take place in him? We will conclude
that his circumstances are bound to i'm
prove; but will he himself expand and i'm
prove correspondingly? Our own present
circumstances, for example, are certainly
superior to those of the Elizabethan era;
and yet none of our authors (save, per-
haps, in the secret conviction of his or her
own hearty is equal or superior to Shake
speare. OF course, we may become more
moral, with the lapse of temptation to i'm
morality; but that is negative virtue. Are
we to become, in any respect, different2
Are qualities or powers to be added to Us
whereof we now know nothing?
This aspect of the matter has been but
little attended to. It is not so easy to
imagine variations in humanity as in
things; and yet the latter, alone, would be
of comparatively small account. But the
author of story now publish
ing has entered this neglected field,
and the idea he is developing
promises well. "The Master of Silence,''
is the title of his tale, and it seems to be
engaged with the question of the manner
in which the men of the future are to
communicate with one another 1t is not
possible, of course, to foretell at this
stage what solution the author has in
vr,nd Ruf tho oil NAV hot
very reason the more freely indulge his
own conjectures.
And certainly, when one comes to think
of it, audible speech seems somewhat
clumsy device for making known ones
thoughts. 1t is laborious, redundant and
artificial. There is no vital correspond
ence between the enunciations of speech
and the thoughts of the mind. Vowel
sounds may, indeed, be regarded in a
measure as spontaneous and natural;
animals use them, and they express emo
ton. Properly graduated, they are the
substance Of vocal music, and they are
doubtless capable of indefinitely finer gra-
dations than we have as yet found it worth
while to give them. But the intro
duction of consonants renders speech, as
such, incorrigibly superficial and mechan-
ical. 1t is violent and arbitrary expedi-
ent, and opens the way to hypocrisy and
falsehood. For. words being definite and
invariable signs, which are retained by the
memory and are available at viii, any man
can say anything he chooses, without the
least relation to what may be actually in
his mind. His hearers, on the other hand,
being by tradition and habit accustomed
TO associate these word sounds with GER
tain ideas and figures, receive impressions
which are not only as likely as not to be
alien 10 what is in the speakers mind. but
are even certain TO be an incomplete and
inaccurate version thereof; since it is
actually impossible for anybody with the
best will in the world) to convey by word
or utterance an exact picture of his mental
conception. Words, to whatever extent
multiplied and refined, inevitably lead
around the point rather than TO it; when
all has been said that can be said, the vital
essence has to be surmised-it has not been
expressed And, as matter Of fact, If We
examine closely what happens in CONVEX
sation, we shall find that we form our I'M
pressions of what people are, not from
what they say, but rather from their man.
ner of saying it-from their expression,
their intonation, their rate and rhythm of
ust6rance, their gestures, the aspect of
Their countenance, and most OF all, per-
haps, from what they do not say. The con-
veItional forms and compliments of greet
ing and talk, which two people go through
vita on first meeting, in order TO avoid
the awkwardness Of silence, are for the
nc st part uttered unconsciously and are
nos listened 10; nevertheless, something IS
going on between the interlocutors; they
are forming opinions about one another,
and those opinions are based upon indica-
tons or betrayals which are temperamentai
and involuntary. Each party 10 the dia-
Iegue imagines that it is MS words and not
himself that is being attended TO; he says
what he wishes to h2ve believed, and all
she while the other is peTceiving and be-
ljsying quite another matter, and although
bis Judgment may be astray, Il IS never
tnefess different from what the first in
tsnds and supposes it TO be. Hence arise
ABSURD misunderstanding and cross-puT-
poses, and the proverb becomes literally
true. that speech is given rs 70 conceal oar
1enotions and sentiments. In shorf, speech
Is a failure. Il cannot convey what II
means to convey, even when il means TO
convey the truth; if it means 10 convey
what IS not the truth, it succeeds only IN
so far as il may bewilder the hearer 5 true
intuition; that Il, the nearer viii not be-
live the particular lie which the speaker