In the following passage, some of the words have been left out. Read the passage carefully and select the correct answer for the given blank out of the four alternatives. While language as the medium ___________ thought may be compared to air as the medium of the sun's influence, in other _____________ it is like the skin of the body; a scurvy skin shows bad blood within, and a scurvy language shows inaccurate thought ___________ a confused mind. And as a disease once fixed on the skin reacts and poisons the blood in turn as it has first been poisoned by the blood, so careless use of language __________ indulged reacts on the mind to make it permanently and increasingly _____________, illogical, and inaccurate in its thinking. as the medium ___________ thought may