292 THE UTOPIAN COMMUNIST
a universal language was available.^1 In America the editors of the
controversial Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly worked assiduously
for a "universal language," a reform less shocking to some of their
contemporaries than their ultra-radical proposals about sex,
woman's rights and government by "pantarchy."
Weitling's interest in a universal language (Allgemeine Denk
und Sprachlehre, nebst Grundzügen einer Universalsprache der
Menschheit) dates from the early 1840's. In his conversations with
Fröbel in Zurich while he was taking English lessons, Weitling
after the fashion of modern students of semantics became greatly
interested in philosophical discussions about the use of words. He
was shocked to discover that so many different shades of meaning
existed for the same word even among those who thought they
were in substantial agreement. A reference to a book by Proudhon
aroused his interest in the prevalence of metaphysical concepts
instead of "a system of pure reason"; and it may have been then
that he conceived the idea of classifying all things that were per
ceptible to the senses and all concepts on the basis of symbols
which would clearly and accurately express men's inner reactions
to all outward stimuli. He could not begin his ambitious under
taking until after his release from prison, though he had plenty
of time to plan it during his confinement. Apparently he believed
that he had come upon the philosopher's stone which men had
been seeking for ages to give them the perfect "criterion of truth."
Comparing himself with Newton and Copernicus, he reflected
solemnly on what the world would lose if he should die in prison.
The new researcher into the realm of philology was amazed
to discover that the German language alone used 80,000 words to
express what he had in mind; that the majority of the German
people did not know more than 10,000 of these terms and could
get along well with only 5,000. Weitling claimed to have worked
a whole year "without interruption" on his classifications of con
cepts and words and to have revised his lists at least five times. Be
fore long he came to the conclusion that the task was too great for
(^1) London Promethean, January, 1842, No. 1, p. 18.