584 Causes and Course of Organic Evolution 



But a striking expansion and corollary to all of the above is 

 seen, when we study the '* masters" of warfare, of industry, 

 and of exploitation. In these, and in not a few others doubtless 

 who by force of environment remained each a "mute inglorious 

 Milton" or "a Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood," the 

 brain capacity and activity so outran and gathered up in a 

 proenvironal whole the hundreds of hands they looked to for 

 aid in their gigantic schemes, that their plans drew in and 

 engaged them all. So when Napoleon exclaimed that *' there 

 were no Alps for him," he truly meant that a million ordinary 

 potential hands, either in the form of human hands, or of these 

 guiding horses, or mechanical devices of a hand-condensing 

 kind, were at his disposal to effect results that otherwise would 

 only have been reached had no Alps existed. And when he 

 declared that there was no defeat for him, he meant that his 

 brain was big enough and active enough to keep a million hands 

 fighting, in order to command success. 



We arrive now at an important stage in our study, where 

 the purely physical side of man becomes linked more intimately 

 with his mental, and even moral, development. We refer to 

 the formation and perfecting of Language. 



No one at the present day will assert other than in a figura- 

 tive sense, that language as a physical acquirement is "a 

 heaven-born gift to man." The capacity for clear, varied, 

 and expressive articulation by parrots is superior to that of 

 some human beings, while the jackdaw and other birds all 

 show linguistic ability of greater or less merit. 



That the importance of the tongue, vocal chords, and associ- 

 ated parts, as cooperative physical or physiological agents in 

 man's evolution, has been fully appreciated, is at once evi- 

 denced by the quotation from Emerson with which this chap- 

 ter opened. We would object, however, to his sweeping con- 

 clusion. The grounds for this we shall now try to present. 



As Darwin, IMivart, Lauder-Lindsay, Romanes, and other 

 writers have stated, definite though primitive linguistic facul- 

 ties are shown by various birds, dogs, monkeys, etc. Thus 

 every one is familiar with the exultant notes of the hen after 



