There is the
statement: “this pencil is five inches
long”,
and the statement, “I feel that
this pencil is five inches long”, and we must get
clear about the relation of the grammar of the first statement to
the grammar of the second. To the statement “I
feel in my hand that the water is three feet under the
ground”
15.
we should like to
answer: “I don't know what this
means”. But the diviner would
say: “surely you know what it means. You
know what
‘three feet under the ground
’ means,
and you know what
‘I feel
’
means.” But I should answer him: “I
know what a word means
in certain contexts.
Thus I understand the phrase ‘three feet under the
ground’, say, in the connections, ‘the
measurement has shown that the water runs three feet under the
ground’, ‘If we dig three feet deep we are
going to strike water’, ‘the depth of the water
is three feet by the eye’. But the use of the
expression ‘a feeling in my hands of water being three feet
under the ground’ has yet to be explained to
me.”