22

1908 Nov 2
Logic
6

Chapter I. Common Ground.

There are some points concerning which you and I are thouroughly
agreed, at the very outset. For instance, that you know the English language
--at least, tolerably. I am positively sure that you cannot deny that,--
at any rate, not in English. There is much more that it will not be
unreasonable to assume that you will assent to; such as that you
know the rudiments of grammar,--meaning, of course, Aryan grammar,
which is often called "universal grammar";--that you have most
of the leading attributes of the genus Homo, as set down in the
books of physiology and psychology. Nay, far more than that, you
have had, I will wager, an experience of life quite similar in a general
way, as regards the smaller (??) and more elementary items of experience
to mine (?). Among these I can instance this, that you, like me, have