This book traces the development of speech from a time when the spiritual roots of words were still experienced, down to the present day when words are in danger of being little else than 'bits' of information. The book illustrates the origins of everyday words and names and traces the use of words through history. It shows how certain sounds originally represented objects, ideas, and activities. The book's chapters are entitled: (1) Derivations: Pictures in Words; (2) Words and History; (3) The Nature of Sound in Language; (4) The Original Universal Language; (5) Developments in Lemuria and Atlantis; and (6) The Cosmic Word or the Music of the Spheres. (CR)