In the book Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson, there is a great chapter on language and his observations on it through life.
Words are often borrowed from some material appearance when traced to their roots. For example: right means straight; wrong means twisted; spirit means wind; transgression means the crossing of a line, and so on. A picture of a heart is used to symbolize emotion, and the human head is used to symbolize thought. Even natural facts and emotions can be symbols of spiritual facts. For example, an angry man is a lion, a cunning man is a fox, and a learned man is a torch. A lamb represents innocence; a snake represents slight spite.
When observing nature, one thinks of the spiritual symbols without realizing them. When looking into a flowing river, one is reminded of the flux of all things. Or when one throws a rock into a river, the ripple effect reminds them of the influence of all things.
Man is conscious of a universal soul within his life; the natures of Justice, Truth, Love, and Freedom lie within us. The universal soul is not any individual's property, but we are its. We call it reason, and considering this to nature, we call it spirit. Men of all ages and countries embody this language.
Symbols are found to make the original elements of all languages. The ability of man to connect his thoughts to symbols and then speak these symbols is how language started. Then the other person would see the symbols in their head and translate them to a real-life object.
This means when language first started, it was simpler and represented more truth. Man is corrupted when language is corrupted because when language is corrupted, it represents dishonesty. When the sovereignty of ideas is put second to man's desires for riches, pleasure, or praise, man becomes dishonest, using language as the means to an end.
When duplicity and falsehood replace simplicity and truth, words stand for things that are not, then a paper currency is employed when there is no bullion in the vaults. In due time, words lose all power because of fraud.
Wise men can see through these lies because they still observe the world in front of them without the corruption of language distorting it. An honest man is in alliance with truth and god. When we let passion or desires enter our thoughts, it becomes difficult to be 100% honest.
Because of this, perhaps the mind is stronger when living a country life than in a city, having its natural symbolic ways in which the brain thinks become overloaded. The roar of the cities, and the honks of the horns, make it much harder for man to communicate truthfully to himself.
Every object rightly seen unlocks a new faculty of the soul.