Abstract
As poets have extraordinary inklings and aperçus on the most abstruse scientific questions, Wordsworth's opinion on this matter (quoted by De Quincy) is worth considering: Language is not the “dress” of thought, it is the “incarnation.” This is Shelley's aperçu of Darwinism. Man exists “but in the future and the past; being, not what he is, but what he has been and shall be.”
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to the full article PDF.
USD 39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
GRENFELL, A. Thought without Words. Nature 36, 173 (1887). https://doi.org/10.1038/036173a0
Issue date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/036173a0


