nature. Most of the process by which this trans-
formation is made, is hidden from us in the re-
mote time when language was framed; but the
same tendency may be daily observed in children.
Children and savages use only nouns or names of
things, which they convert into verbs, and apply to
analogous mental acts.

2. But this origin of all words that convey a
spiritual import, -- so conspicuous a fact in the his-
tory of language, -- is our least debt to nature. It
is not words only that are emblematic; it is things
which are emblematic. Every natural fact is a
symbol of some spiritual fact. Every appearance
in nature corresponds to some state of the mind,
and that state of the mind can only be described
by presenting that natural appearance as its pic-
ture. An enraged man is a lion, a cunning man is
a fox, a firm man is a rock, a learned man is a
torch. A lamb is innocence; a snake is subtle
spite; flowers express to us the delicate affections.
Light and darkness are our familiar expression for
knowledge and ignorance; and heat for love. Visi-
ble distance behind and before us, is respectively
our image of memory and hope.

Who looks upon a river in a meditative hour
and is not reminded of the flux of all things?
Throw a stone into the stream, and the circles that
propagate themeselves are the beautiful type of all

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