The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-06-07

wise any suitable remedy. The eff
forts to invent a universal language
spoken language that everybody under
stands" is just as far from what is wanted
as a language only understood bv two per-
sons. The point is that nobody does, or
ever can understand" any spoken Ian
| puage whatever. No; the reform must be
instituted on another plane altogether; the
whole point of view must be changed. We
must form our new language out of those
elements, and on those principles, which
have hitherto Eeen kept studiously in the
background.
In the first place. we want a language
in its operation than the present one.
Everybody has noticed how much swifter
thought is than speech. Yet there ls no
necessary reason why speech-or at least
communication-should not keep pace
with thought. WHAT ia needed is a
means OF throwing the whole of the
speakers mind bodily into that Of the
listener-ot conveying to your inter-
locutor by a single impulse your own
perception of your W meaning. 1t re-
quires but a moment for the eye to take in
the whole sweep of a Landscape which 1T
would need hours or days to describe in
words. Now, if our minds were open or
could be opened to one another's mental
vision, it is evident that there would no
longer be any vocal speech. OF course,
SuCn Il revelation WOulu ulSEose forever Oh
the possibility of concealmeut or receptions;
the world would become a palace of truth,
and we should be inevitably known to one
another for precisely what we are. In our
present moral and social condition. this
would not be agreeable to the majority of
US, and that is doubtless the reason why We
have clung SO desperately 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 Il way to COM
plete an adequats self-revelation. 1t will
probably be discovered that such revelation
is not nearly SO abEtruse and arduous a
problem as it might now appear.
Two methods at once gu 2gest themselves,
one physical, the other metaphysical. The
former is related to the sign language, a
coarse and primitive We sion OF which is
practised by savages and uneducated per-
SONS. But the true sign language is a far
more subtle and comprehensive thing than
the most q~uick-witted Indian or Italian
ever dreamed of. The signs must be made,
not by gestures Of arms. hands, shoulders
not, III short, by muscular movements, but
by the finest, most delicate pulsations and
cont actions OF the nerves OF the face, es-
Eeclally those Su rounding the eyes and
mouth, Our faces arc now 80 stiff and
, rigid, thanks to long training with n view
, to making them Opaque masks instead OF
, the transparent Indicators they were in
tended to be, that We have almost entirely
lost control of these exquisite nerves. But
We may still observa their working in in
fants and young children, and may imagine
what they might become were they educate
Though several generations. by the face
eyes and mouth, and by almost insenaiblt
, notifications of the pose of the body, .
=, language could be de veloped, which, to the
! eyes educated to read it, would be AS swift
, and comprehensive as light itself, and, o.
! course, entirely ln3cpendent of tho nation
atty OF the commun- cants. No: would j
fall to express anything that required ex-
I ptessiOn, Tor. az the human mind become
| deeper and |loitier, it will cease to occuo,
itself with Humberlrss oortant an,
lifcless trivia!itics that now distinct an,
/ confuse it. and all thou"ht VIII be base,
t upon emotion, and will have respect t.
r ends Of life and use.
@ The metaphysical method is, Of course
@ what We have begun to call tolepathy o
thought-tfansfarrnGe. Tho principle O
@ -transEorcnc seems pretty well es
tab!lshcd: and, If 1T really be n fuct, Their
+ are no apparent llmItg to it's future deyeloD
= ilent. One person mny, at will and to al
o lntents and purposes. become nnother, II
It far as what he IA thinking and feeling ar
n concerned; and distance IN space need b
q no bar to lHtcr-coumunicatlon. But thi
languape-t language it can be called
o Seems almost too immediate and direct fo
u general use; 1T "a agreeable to use amediun
however Tine; and am disposed to thin
that the face iunguape, IA above indicated
Will be the language OF the future.
% JULIAN HAWTHORNE.
/ The Language of the Face.
MI lia"thorne's essay is thoughtful an
: eloquent. And 40 far as / can see. the 70