Ifnow the outer shape could express the inner individuality only in so far as that shape is neither an organ nor an action, hence only in so far as it is a passive whole, it would behave as an existent Thing, which passively received the inner as an alien element into its passive existence, and thereby became a sign of it an external contingent expression whose actual aspect lacked any meaning of its own a language whose sounds and sound combinations are not the real thing itself, but are linked with it by sheer caprice and are contingent in relation toit.