3558. Others' speaking is brought through by a general method
Sometimes I discerned when others were speaking that what they said was brought down to me not by speech, nor by distinct mental imagery, but by some general method, enabling me to learn what they were discussing. But that method cannot easily be described, except that it is like the way people converse among themselves so that from their facial expression one can tell just about what they are saying - but this only illustrates the perceptive method under discussion. Generally speaking, it is a kind of signal showing what they are saying - and indeed, a sure one that is unmistakable. 1748, 13 Oct.
3558. THAT THE SPEECH OF OTHERS IS CONVEYED IN A COMMON [GENERAL] MANNER.
It was sometimes perceived that others spoke, and what they said was conveyed to me, not by speech nor by distinct ideas, but in a certain general manner, so that I knew what they said, but the mode of it cannot easily be described, except that it was as when others speak together, and it is known, as it were, from the countenance what they say. But this barely [and remotely] represents such a perception. In this general mode [of communication] there is a certain indication of what they say; and yet so definite that it does not deceive. - 1748, October 13.
3558. Quod loquela aliorum perferatur modo communi
Aliquoties perceptum quod alii loquerentur, et quid loquuti ad me delatum, non per loquelam, nec per distinctas ideas, sed quodam communi modo, ut scirem de quo loquuti, sed modus iste non facile describi potest, nisi sicut alii inter se loquuntur, quod ex vultu quasi sciri possit quid loquantur, sed hoc solum repraesentat perceptionem hanc; in communi est quaedam indicatio, quid dicunt, et quidem certa, ut non fallat. 1748, 13 Oct.