Summary

Again, Woolf asserts that words are not useful. She turns her attention to their other quality, "their positive quality, that is, their power to tell the truth" (4). She notes that there are three kinds of truth (Gospel, literary, and home) but that it would take too long to assess each separately. She instead declares that "the only test of truth is length of life," and explains that "since words survive the chops and changes of time longer than any other substance, therefore they are the truest" (4). Woolf describes other things that fall or decay, like buildings or the earth itself, but states that when words are used appropriately they "seem able to live for ever" (4). She asserts that the proper use of words is not, she has shown, to make a useful statement. She returns to the sign "Passing Russell Square" and shows the...