" Words, in short, are
the outward and visible signs of thought: that, and something
more--since you may prove by experiment that the shortest and simplest
train of thought cannot be followed unless at every step the mind
silently casts it into the mould of words.
* * * * *
As an instrument for reconciling Man's inward harmony with the great
outer harmony of the Universe, Poetry is notoriously imperfect. Men have
tried others therefore--others that appeared at first sight more
promising, such as Music and Mathematics--yet on the whole to their
disappointment.
Take Mathematics. Numbers inhere in all harmony. By numbers harmony can
be expressed far more severely than by Poetry, and so successfully up to
a point, that poets have borrowed the very word to dignify their poor
efforts. They "lisp in numbers"--or so they say: and the curious may
turn to the _Parmenides_, to Book vii. of _The Republic_ and others of
the _Dialogues_ and note how Plato, hunting on the trail of many
distinguished predecessors, pursues Mathematics up to the point where,
as a means of interpreting to Man the Universal harmony, Mathematics,
like Philosophy, inevitably breaks down.
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