3.32
Speaking well of a thing invokes several deities. For it involves not only attending to the spirits of a thing, but also attending to the spirits of language.
Words emerge from engagements with things. When we attend to a thing, if we’re affected profoundly, words initially disperse. They re-gather at the edges, darting as they shift and form new arrangements. Arrays of words may come forth, like buzzing attendant spirits, dazzling us, till they fall into place. Here, the attendant spirits of words and things give each other favour for this moment: language shimmers in its duet with things.
And even if a thing doesn’t speak to us, language can still dazzle us with its spirits.