Max Muller and other writers on mental operations tell us that we cannot think without the thought taking form in words. This, in itself, if true, suggests how irrationally we pro ceed to bring about the necessary coalescence of word and object in our mind by seeking to effect it through a compendium of rules and laws and a train of reasoning liberated thereby. This road is exceedingly devious and doubtful, and following it we shall never reach the goal of speaking a foreign tongue.