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state of things.
We know very well he is not dreaming of the planet Mars not of Kerguelen Island.
He means right here and now; and we all know what "here and now" is.
It is what we, all being together there, find to be forced upon our senses.
But if one of us picks up a book we don't know what book, we don't know what book, and opening it at random; reads the first snetence is 'It is snowing', we have recieved not one particle of information, because we do not know what the sentence relates to.
It is just as if we saw the word 'snowing' in the dictionary.
So then it is clear that one element of assertion, at least, consists in the pplication of a description to something well-known and well-understood between the asserter and his auditor.
Take for example the descriptive word "energetic".
If I pick up a scrap of a letter in the Public Garden and read "Thomas J Studley id energetic"