98 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



called the " Portrait of a Gentleman." Nobody knows anything what- 

 ever about the original, but the "gentleman" is so sad and thoughtful 

 that we dream with him, and see the world through his melancholy 

 eyes. In minor degrees many paintings have this kind of attraction ; 

 it is to be found in landscape as well as in portrait and history, and, 

 if a few thoughtful works are brought together in the same room, 

 without being neutralized by anything discordant in furniture and 

 decoration, their effect upon the mind may be both durable and pro- 

 found. Longmarts Magazine. 



-<*>>- 



THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE. 



By M. A. HOVEL AC QUE. 



EVEN if the study of words, as it is carried on by the method of 

 the natural sciences, did not furnish evidence that all language is 

 traceable back to primordial monosyllabic elements, observation of the 

 language-processes in children would lead to that conclusion. Gestures 

 and physiognomical motions preceded language proper, or articulate 

 language ; and on this point it is of interest to compare man with the 

 monkeys, which are able to express a considerable variety of feelings 

 by the play of the muscles of the forehead and the eyebrows, the lips, 

 nose, and jaws. If asked on what vocalization depends, we should 

 answer that it depends solely on a particular sensation being stronger 

 than others. With the infant, voice is provoked at first by some uneasi- 

 ness or suffering ; and it is not till a later period that it responds to a 

 feeling of comfort and satisfaction. But in either case the first emis- 

 sions have nothing intentional about them, and there is no link of 

 volition between the feeling and the vocal manifestation of it. The 

 time comes at last when the child, beginning to perceive what is going 

 on around him, remarks that they always come to his help when he 

 has committed the act of utterance ; and he has from that time learned 

 by experiment the use of his vocal power. He employs it at first in a 

 very general and vague way ; but, as he is taught by experience, he 

 learns to exercise it more precisely, more in accordance with his voli- 

 tion, and to adapt the vocal emission to the results he wishes to bring 

 about. He also perceives the greater facility of expression it gives 

 him, and so goes on developing his precious faculty as he continues to 

 exercise it. Tylor has clearly brought out the fact that savages have 

 in a high degree the power of expressing their ideas directly by emo- 

 tional tones. These tones, or interjections, are the first elements of 

 grammatical language. The same author has also remarked another 

 fact, that children not more than three or four years old, for example, 

 are wont to observe the play of features, attitude, and gestures of the 



