understanding the world. In a sense, indeed, the power of 
     words or other visual symbols became greater than 
     before . . . now verbal and mathematical thought became 
     the only truth , and the whole sensory world came to be 
     regarded as illusory, except insofar as thoughts were 
     heard or seen.

     In his dialogue of the Cratylus , named for his teacher of 
language and grammar, Plato has Socrates say (438):

     But if these things are only to be known through names, 
     how can we suppose that the givers of names had 
     knowledge, or were legislators before there were names at 
     all, and therefore before they could have known them?
          Cratylus : I believe, Socrates, the true account of the 
     matter to be, that a power more than human gave things