Wherever we turn we face the absolute importance of language for our
work. Whatever we hear or read concerning a crime is expressed in words,
and everything perceived with the eye, or any other sense, must be
clothed in words before it can be put to use. That the criminalist must
know this first and most important means of understanding, completely
and in all its refinements, is self-evident. But still more is required
of him. He must first of all undertake a careful investigation of the
essence of language itself. A glance over literature shows how the
earliest scholars have aimed to study language with regard to its
origins and character. Yet, who needs this knowledge? The lawyer. Other
disciplines can find in it only a scientific interest, but it is
practically and absolutely valuable only for us lawyers, who must, by
means of language, take evidence, remember it, and variously interpret
it. A failure in a proper understanding of language may give rise to
false conceptions and the most serious of mistakes. Hence, nobody is so
bound as the criminal lawyer to study the general character of language,
and to familiarize himself with its force, nature, and development.
Without this knowledge the lawyer may be able to make use of language,
but failing to understand it, will slip up before the slightest
difficulty. There is an exceedingly rich literature open to
everybody.[240]