¶ Book
Index Entry
If baby Tim were never again to be curious regarding the object designated by the sound book beyond tearing its nice-to-tear pages and dropping them from the hammock to the grass in primary, untutored, flutter-flutter-plop experiments in tensile strength, gravity, sound, and air-resistance effects, he would never know that the audible word-symbol book designates but an indirect means or an instrument to a certain vital objective, namely, the communication of ideas by its author to other minds in a referential form more permanent than if they were to be just orally expressed; a method of broadcast beyond the power of human speech. It would be almost preposterous (though provocative of deep consideration) for Mrs. Murphy to suggest to her child that Newton’s ‘Optics’ and ‘Bringing Up Father’ are one and the same article, just book.
