The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1891-08-07

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his words and not himself that is being
attended to; he says what he wishes tc
have believed, and ell the while the
other is pcrcciving and believing quite
another matter, and although his judg
Inent may bc astray, it is nevertheless
different from what he first intends and
supposcs it to be. Hence arise absurd
misunderstanding and cross purposes,
and the provcrb becomes literally true,
that speech Is given TO us TO conceal
our emotions and sentiments In
short, speech is q failure. 1t cannot
convey what it means to convey, even
when it means to convey the truth: if it
means to convey what is not the truth,
it succeeds only in SO far as it may be-
wilder the hcarer's true intuition; that
is, the nearer will not believe the par
ticular lie which the speaker is trying
to put forward, but it is by that lie
prevented from divining the actual
truth.
Now the survival among intelligent
beings of an anomaly of this kind is q
curious fact; and with the elevation of
the race, we may fairly expect that it
will not survive forever. The time will
come when human beings will desire n
real interchange of thoughts, and COM
Inunication of feelings; and when that
time comes, speech, as we now know it,
will be laid aside. 1t was n poor make
shift mt best, and hns been growing
more and more inadequate as tho re-
Quircments and complexities of life in
creased. 1t is, indeed, {. complete ap-
achronism already; less than any other
thing has it pnrtakcn of the general i'd
vance of intelligence. We feel this at
every turn; but we persistently fail to
devise any suitable remedy. The eff
forts to invent universal language arc
ludicrously beside the mark. a spoken
language that everybody under
stands" is just us far from what is
wanted as u language only understood
by two persons. The point is that no.
body does, or ever can understand
any spoken language whatever. No;
the form must be instituted on another
plane altogether; the whole point OF
view must be changed. We must form
our new language out of those clements,
and on those principles, which have
hitherto been kept studiously in the
background
In the first place, we want o language
that shall be almost infinitely more
rapid in its operation than the present
one. Everybody has noticed how much
swifter thought is than speech Yet
there is no necessary reason why speech
or at lcast communication should
not keep pace with thought. Whit is
needed is means of throwing the whole
of the speakers mind bodily into that of
the listener-of conveying TO your IN
tcrlocutcr by single impulse your own
perception of your own meaning. tire
quires but moment for the eye to take
in the whole sweep of landscape
which it would need hours or days to
describe in words. Now. if our minds
were open or could be opened TO one an
others mental vision. it is evident that
there would no longer be any vocal
speech OF course, such revelation
would dispose forever of the possibility
of concealment or deception; the world
would become palace of truth, and we
other for precisely what we are. In
our present moral and social condition,
this would not he agreeable to the mo
jority of us. and that is doubtless the
reason why we have chung so dcsper-
atcly to audible words. But if man is
to be perfected he will no longer have
anything to conceal; and then he will
set himself TO find a way to complete
an adequate self-reyclation. Il will
probably be discovered that such re%cl,-
ton is not nearly SO nbstruse and nrsly-
GUS problem as it might now appear
Two methods at once suggest them
selves, one physical, the other meta
physical. The former is related to the
sign language, a coarse and primitive
version of which is prncticcd by sevae,cs
and uredrcated persons. But the true
sign language is n far more subtle and
comprehensive thing than the most
quicS-wittcd Indian or Italian ever
dreamed Of The signs must I've mndc,
not by gestures of arms, hands, shout
dcrs-not in short, 10y muscular move
ments. butby the finest, most delicate
pulsations and contractons of the
nerves of the face, especially those
surrounding the eyes and mouth. Our
faces are now SO stiff and rigid, thenks
To long training with view to making
them Opaque marks instead of the trans
parent indicators they were intended to
DC, that we have almost entirely lost
control of these exquisite nerves. But
we may still observe their working in
infants and young children, and may
imagine what they might become we're
they educated through several genera
lions. I'y the. face, eyes and mouth,
and by almost insensiblc notifications
OF the pose of the body, IL language could
be developed which to the eyes c<l,,-
Gated to read it would Ike as
swift and comprehensive as light
itself, and, OF course, entire
~ independent of the nation