Beattie, James (1735-1803)

Of Imagination [from Dissertations Moral and Critical]

London

Printed for W. Strahan; and T. Cadell ... and W. Creech

1783

"For although words and thoughts are different things (as appears from this, that deaf men think, who know nothing of words) yet words are, as it were, the dress, or the guise, in which our thoughts present themselves"

Whence comes it, that, on hearing the sounds, or seeing the characters, of a known language, the mind makes so quick a transition to the thing signified, that it seems to overlook the impression made on the eye or ear, and to attend to the meaning only? Is it not, because the articulate sound, or the written character, has long been associated with the idea signified, and has formed in the mind a habit of passing instantaneously from the one to the other? In like manner, and for the same reason, the thoughts, that occur to us, do instantly suggest words, by which they are wont to be expressed; and that whether we write, or speak, or only meditate. For although words and thoughts are different things (as appears from this, that deaf men think, who know nothing of words) yet words are, as it were, the dress, or the guise, in which our thoughts present themselves; so that we cannot revolve ideas in our minds, without revolving words at the same time; even as we cannot think of the character of an absent friend, without recollecting his visible appearance.
(II.iii, p. 97)

Dress::Dress or Guise

Reading

At least 2 entries in ESTC (1783).

Beattie, James. Dissertations Moral and Critical. Printed for Strahan, Cadell, and Creech: London, 1783. Facsimile-Reprint: Friedrich Frommann Verlag, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, 1970.

Dress of Thought

07/26/2005

12/03/2008