Socrates would add, perhaps,
that language was given us to express, not to conceal our thoughts; and
that, if they cannot be communicated, invaluable as they doubtless are,
we had better keep them to ourselves; one thing it is clear he would
do,--he would insist on precise defintions. But in truth it may be more
than surmised that the obscurities of which all complain, except
those (and in our day they are not a few) to whom obscurity is a
recommendation, result from suffering the intellect to speculate in
realms forbidden to its access; into caverns of tremendous depth and
darkness, with nothing better than our own rushlight. Surely we have
reason to suspect as much when some learned professor, after muttering
his logical incantations, and conjuring with his logical formulae,
surprises you by saying, that he has disposed of the great mysteries of
existence and the universe, and solved to your entire satisfaction, in
his own curt way, the problems of the ABSOLUTE and the INFINITE! If the
cardinal truths of philosophy and religion hitherto received are doomed
to be imperilled by such speculations, one feels strongly inclined to
pray with the old Homeric hero,--'that if they must perish, it may be
at least in daylight.
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