THE DAWN OF MIND. 151 



words. The way to make money is not only to ac- 

 cumulate small gains steadily, but to put them out at 

 a good rate of interest. Animals did the first with 

 their mental acquisitions : Man did the second. At a 

 comparatively early date, he found out a first-rate 

 and permanent investment for his money, so that he 

 could not only keep his savings and put them out at 

 the highest rate of interest, but have a share in all 

 the gain that was made by other men. That dis- 

 covery was Language. Many animals had hit upon 

 an imperfect form of this discovery ; but Man alone 

 succeeded in improving it up to a really paying point. 

 The condition of all growth is exercise, and till he 

 could find. a further field and a larger opportunity to 

 work what little brains he had, he had little chance 

 of getting more. Speech gave him this opportunity. 

 He rapidly ran up a fortune in brain-matter, because 

 he had found out new uses for it, new exercises of it, 

 and especially a permanent investment for husbanding 

 in the race each gain as it was made in the individual. 

 When he did anything he could now say it; when he 

 learned anything he could pass it on; when he became 

 wise wisdom did not die with him, it was banked in 

 the Mind of humanity. So one man lent his mind to 

 another. The loans became larger and larger, the 

 interest greater and greater ; Man's fortune was 

 secured. In the mere Struggle for Life, his wits were 

 sharpened up to a point ; but unless he had learned to 

 talk, he could never have passed very far beyond the 

 animal. 



Apart from the saving of time and the facility for 

 increased knowledge, the acquisition of speech meant 

 a saving of brain. A word is a counter for a thought. 



