Continental Monthly , Vol. 5, No. 6, June, 1864: Devoted to Literature and National PolicyVarious
Religion
Continental Monthly , Vol. 5, No. 6, June, 1864: Devoted to Literature and National Policy
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century -- Periodicals
Holding fast, then, to this thought, let us proceed to the endeavor so
to distribute the totality of the aspects of Language as to exhaust the
subject; and, by a concurrent projection of the analogies into the
larger domain of the Universe as a whole, to establish a valid
scientific _nexus_ between the minor and the major spheres of our
investigation.
First recurring to the preceding table, and translating the Abstract
Conceptions, NATURE, SCIENCE, and ART, into their
Concrete Equivalents or Analogies, they will stand thus:
_Abstract._ _Concrete._
3. ART. 3. HUMAN PRODUCTION. (Art Creation.)
2. SCIENCE. 2. MAN.
1. NATURE. 1. THE WORLD. (The Natural Universe.)
This is to say, that the World or the Natural Universe is put for the
Natural Impression which it makes of itself on the mind of the knowing
subject; that the Knowing Subject is put in the place of Knowledge; and
that the Product of Activity--the Thing Created--is put for the Activity
itself or the Act of Creation.
It is clear enough that this distribution is exhaustive, thus: 1. The
World, including, in a sense, all things; but here contrasted with, and
in that sense _excluding_, two of its own minor domains; 2. Man,
including Spirit, and God, in so far as human (not seeking to compass or
bring within our scientific classification whatsoever is divine in a
sense absolutely supernatural or transcending the Universe as such); 3.
The Collective or Aggregate Product of Human Activity; including,
especially, as norm or sample, Grand and Fine Art, the Choice Product of
Human Activity; and, in a _more_ especial sense, Language, as the
Special or Typical EXPRESSION, which exactly counterparts and
represents the totality of IMPRESSION made by _Primitive_
Nature or The World, upon Man or the Human Mind.
Nature has again, therefore, like both Science and Art, as shown above,
a double significance, in the former and larger of which it includes and
covers or envelops the two other departments of Being; in the latter and
smaller of which it excludes them, and makes Nature, or the World, to
stand over against them, as that which is to be compared with Man and
the Product of the Labor of Man; and in an especial sense with that
particular product called Speech. The easy transition from the minor to
the larger conception of Nature or the World is what renders Language a
type, not only of the Universe as distinguished from Man and the Product
of his Activity, _but equally a type of the Universe in that larger
sense in which it embraces them both_.
Hence the two terms of our comparison are: 1. LANGUAGE, as the
miniature and image of the whole, with, 2. The World or Universe, in
that larger sense in which it _is_ the whole, and, as such, includes
Language and all else.
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