The Sacred Writings of the Hebrews 228 The Various Names of God 231 The Genius of Languages 234 Metaphor 235 The Later Name for God amongst the Hebrews 236 On the Prophets (Nābhī) 238 The Views of Spinoza 242 Obedience 246 The Law 249 The Law in the Gospel 251 Biographical Note 252 The Ideas of Plato 255 Episodial 257 An Excursion into a Country little known 258 Anthropomorphism 261 The Sacred Codes and the Codes of Laws 262 CHAPTER XII OF WORDS 276 CHAPTER XIII OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS 286 Physics 287 Comparative Sciences 288 Concerning some Authors 291 Religion and Religions 293 Opposition 298 Abstraction, Inattention 298 Speech 300 Résumé 303 * * * * * THE ORIGIN OF THOUGHT AND SPEECH INTRODUCTION When opening my eyes in the morning, and whilst still struggling with an inclination to sleep, I review the day and what it will have in store for me; but the pictures drawn are confused, and my will takes no part in it. For some time I have been haunted by the impression that the mental faculties of the generality of men have not succeeded in throwing off a species of torpor resembling that of a person hardly awake; the supposition that this torpid condition prevents our minds from attaining that degree of lucidity to which they have a right to aspire, is perhaps a hallucination, yet possibly I may be right in thinking it. How many confused ideas traverse my brain in one day, and how seldom those come of which I follow the thread. We know well that injunction so often given by parents to children, and by schoolmasters to their pupils: “Try to concentrate your attention.” It almost seems as if that which we require of children is beyond my powers, for I have hardly resolved to disentangle a problem of whatever kind, when, under the form of useless, futile, inept thoughts, obstacles heap themselves across my path. I conclude from this that a fatal somnolence paralyses my faculties. When a person has to be awakened who is disinclined to be disturbed, he is violently shaken. What movement would suffice to energise a man whose mental powers were drowsy? I do not see anything from the outside; and a personal effort could not be looked for, from an enervated will.