This question asks if this verse is consistent with reality rather than other scripture.  Thus, here is related science.  Notice in the image below the physical parts of the body related to speech take up a disproportionally  large part of the primary motor cortex in the brain.  

[![enter image description here][1]][1]

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Representations-of-body-parts-within-the-primary-motor-cortex-Control-signals-come-from_fig1_258422874


Then, notice that thinking a word and speaking that word take up almost identical locations in the brain.

> Despite the neural activity from imagined or actual speech differing slightly, the decoder was able to reconstruct which words several of the volunteers were thinking, using neural activity alone (Frontiers in Neuroengineering, doi.org/whb).
 __ 
 Helen Thomson, “[Brain decoder can eavesdrop on your inner voice][2],” NewScience, 29 Oct 2014,



Here’s brain research evidence explaining why people speak before the think.   


> Interestingly, the researchers found that the brain began to prepare the motor areas to respond very early, during initial stimulus presentation, suggesting that we get ready to respond even before we know what the response will be.

> “This might explain why people sometimes say things before they think,” said Avgusta Shestyuk, a senior researcher in UC Berkeley’s Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute and lead author of a paper reporting the results in the current issue of Nature Human Behavior.
 – 
Robert Sanders, “[Tracking Thoughts Moving Through the Brain][3]” 
University of California  Berkeley, University Researcg, January 17, 2018



Thus, while science doesn’t use James’ dramatic metaphors, nether the less it supports James’s ideas.


  [1]: https://i.sstatic.net/jy6SO.jpg
  [2]: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22429934-000-brain-decoder-can-eavesdrop-on-your-inner-voice/
  [3]: https://www.aau.edu/research-scholarship/featured-research-topics/tracking-thoughts-moving-through-brain