186 DARWINISM STATED BY DARWIN HIMSELF. 



anger, together with, their appropriate actions, and the 

 murmur of a mother to her beloved child, are more ex- 

 pressive than any words. That which distinguishes man 

 from the lower animals is not the understanding of artic- 

 ulate sounds, for, as every one knows, dogs understand 

 many words and sentences. In this respect they are at 

 the same stage of development as infants, between the 

 ages of ten and twelve months, who understand many 

 words and short sentences, but can not yet utter a single 

 word. It is not the mere articulation which is our distin- 

 guishing character, for parrots and other birds possess this 

 power. Nor is it the mere capacity of connecting definite 

 sounds with definite ideas ; for it is certain that some 

 parrots, which have been taught to speak, connect unerr- 

 ingly words with things, and persons with events. The 

 lower animals differ from man solely in his almost infi- 

 nitely larger power of associating together the most diver- 

 sified sounds and ideas ; and this obviously depends on 

 the high development of his mental powers. 



As Home Tooke, one of the founders of the noble 

 science of philology, observes, language is an art, like 

 brewing or baking ; but writing would have been a better 

 simile. It certainly is not a true instinct, for every lan- 

 guage has to be learned. It differs, however, widely from 

 all ordinary arts, for man has an instinctive tendency to 

 speak, as we see in the babble of our young children ; 

 while no child has an instinctive tendency to brew, bake, 

 or write. Moreover, no philologist now supposes that 

 any language has been deliberately invented ; it has been 

 slowly and unconsciously developed by many steps. The 

 sounds uttered by birds offer in several respects the near- 

 est analogy to language, for all the members of the same 

 species utter the same instinctive cries expressive of their 

 emotions ; and all the kinds which sing exert their power 



