A country may be overrun by an armed
host, but it is only conquered by the establishment of fortresses.
Words are the fortresses of thought. They enable us to realize our
dominion over what we have already overrun in thought; to make every
intellectual conquest the base of operations for others still
beyond."
"This," says Professor Max Muller, "is a most happy illustration,"
and he proceeds to quote the following, also from Sir William
Hamilton, which he declares to be even happier still.
"You have all heard," says Sir William Hamilton, "of the process of
tunnelling through a sandbank. In this operation it is impossible
to succeed unless every foot, nay, almost every inch of our progress
be secured by an arch of masonry before we attempted the excavation
of another. Now language is to the mind precisely what the arch is
to the tunnel. The power of thinking and the power of excavation
are not dependent on the words in the one case or on the mason-work
in the other; but without these subsidiaries neither could be
carried on beyond its rudimentary commencement.
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