k_a_nitz

From Johann Baptist Krebs' Die Missionäre [The Missionaries]:

We are all united over language being the most excellent characteristic of humanity, in that we are all permitted to designate knowledge and abilities as being in our complete possession only when we are in a position to account for them by means of language. To be able to explain about that which the human thinks, feels, wants, and undertakes therefore comprises the most essential part of his nature. We have spoken about two ways of awakening our language, the third we will discuss today.

The human can attune himself through things which he observes or touches, and speaks in the character of the received mood about everything which others pose to him or which he himself and the circumstances of life pose. If he knows how to use his figure, he does not need such foreign means anymore though, in that he is capable of portraying by fingers, arms, and feet all the forms contained in nature. The outstretched index finger gives a different mood than the thumb, the little finger a different one to the two middle fingers. The flat hand has a different effect than the fist; with the arms we are capable of forming geometric figures; it is also a big difference whether we stand with the feet inwards, outwards, or parallel. The effect is different when we think of the heels and toes as the foundation of our position, or of the ankles, of the knees, of the hips, of the abdomen, the stomach, the chest, the back, the neck, or of the head in all its divisions. The heart, the lungs, the liver, the kidneys, the skin, the flesh, and the bone system bound in its angles and bends with the above are tools of mood which contain a richness so that you would believe nature would be exhausted by it, and bar no secrets anymore to humanity.