V
Selective Tendencies, etc.
Great liberty has been taken with words, but none greater than that which expatiates on their blind power and automatic tendencies. This is all right metaphorically, but manifestly words have no will-power nor blind power of their own. They exist only by virtue of the mentality that employs them. When we speak of words as possessing this or that vital propensity, we speak in effect of vital phenomena represented by words, or poetically ascribed to them. When we refer to the power of words we assume that certain mental functions are vicarious.
Language is a phenomenon of intellectual activity; many of its parts are of subconscious birth; but once they have been subjected to
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