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LIVE SYMBOLS: Words without spirit are dead symbols, devoid of meaning. But it is only the appropriate use of spirit that gives life to the word and thereby makes it meaningful in the contexts by which we live. One can imagine the effect created on a group of listeners by someone who said 'I feel great' in an apathetic tone-of-voice - a droll effect to say the least! And, similarly, someone who said 'I feel sick' in an exuberant tone-of-voice would inevitably create a strange effect on his listeners, one they would have considerable difficulty not equating with a form of schizophrenic derangement!

Indeed, the extent to which words, as symbols of conditions and things, are dependent upon the requisite use of spirit would undoubtedly amaze a person unaccustomed to hearing the many relevant feeling-values and variations in pitch with which we customarily invest them in conversation. And it is highly doubtful that, even in the case of a highly intelligent recipient, such a person would be able to understand so much as a fraction of all the things said to him through words which had been deprived of spirit altogether, or at least to the extent of being delivered in the form of a tedious monotone.

In this respect, the written word is usually less good than the spoken one. For although the writer should have informed his writings with an appropriate use of spirit and thereby granted them a certain recognizable colouring and timbre, it remains for the reader to assimilate the written word into his own spirit, including of course the condition of his spirit at the time, and if possible instantaneously translate it into the spirit it was intended to convey - a thing that isn't always very easy to do and, to cite personal experience, something that isn't always done!

Thus, on account of this complicated process of spiritual translation, the written word is often misconstrued and the writer misunderstood. But with the spoken word, where intellect and spirit are usually in harmony and therefore can be simultaneously comprehended, there is no need for spiritual translation. So all it is necessary for the listener to do is to assimilate it and then react appropriately - a fact, it seems to me, which testifies to the eternal superiority of the spoken over the written word!