THE INADEQUACY OF SPEECH 439 



conditions. They depart from their usual routine. In the child, 

 thought and speech are developed, pari passu, but after a while the 

 latter is no longer indispensable. They need a support just as they 

 do in learning to walk. That thought and reason are not identical may 

 thus be judged in its lowest forms by the conduct of certain animals 

 and from the lowest races such as the Euegians and Bushmen, since the 

 reasoning powers of the latter always remain at the puerile stage, but 

 also from those persons who have risen into an intellectual region 

 where words are inadequate to express their ideas. 



The generally accepted explanation of this tendency to abbreviate 

 words spoken of before is that it is due to laziness, or a well-nigh 

 irresistible impulse to follow the law of least effort. It is, however, 

 more probably owing to the incapacity of adults to apprehend sounds 

 correctly. Even with the utmost care on the part of the teacher and 

 the learner, persons who have reached the age of maturity seldom suc- 

 ceed in acquiring the correct pronunciation of a foreign language. One 

 may continue to add a reading knowledge of languages to one's reper- 

 toire as long as his mental faculties are unimpaired, but the capacity to 

 imitate a correct pronunciation seldom continues beyond the age of 

 about twenty. What is done by the child without thought and without 

 effort is impossible to the " grown-ups." 2 



That the psychic life of man can not be fully expressed by lan- 

 guage is further evinced by the predisposition manifested everywhere 

 and at all times by mankind to come to its aid with the hands. Hence 

 we have the plastic and pictorial arts together with music. The 

 artistic instinct is nowhere wholly lacking; prehistoric man made rude 

 carvings. A mere daub or a coarse wood-cut gives the beholder a 

 clearer conception of an object than pages of description. The same 

 may be said of a piece of statuary. Words set to music and rhythm in 

 a simple air are more impressive than a mere recitation. When then it 

 is supported by a musical instrument, or better still by an orchestra, 

 the effect is greatly heightened. Even without words emotion can be 

 forcibly expressed by instruments alone or by gestures alone. The 

 orator Cicero is reputed to have said that the actor Eoscius could 

 portray the feelings more accurately in pantomime than he was himself 

 able to describe them with words. The instinct or impulse that leads 

 men to endeavor to give utterance to their feeling by rhythm and tones, 

 often very unmusical to a cultivated taste, is almost as old as the 



2 A curious and amusing instance once occurred in my own experience. I 

 was talking with an Englishman who dealt with the h-sound after the some- 

 what usual manner of his countrymen. Upon my alluding to his weakness in 

 a jocular way, he became very angry, declaring that I had taken up a false 

 charge. Yet in the very words of his defense he committed the peccadilloes 

 against which he was defending his countrymen. On the other hand, I have 

 known several Englishmen who admitted the bad habit and strove assiduously 

 to avoid it. 



