296 MYTH AND SCIENCE. 



more civilized peoples, such as the Chinese, which 

 have not quite attained inflection ; in this case the 

 frequent repetition of the same monosyllahle conveys 

 a different meaning, not only from its relative posi- 

 tion, but from the modulation and tone in which it is 

 uttered. The same thing may be observed in children 

 vdio are just beginning to talk. 



Rhythm, or the graduated and alternate action and 

 reaction with which a vibration begins and ends, is a 

 universal law in the manifestation and movements of 

 all natural phenomena ; a law which is revealed on 

 a grand scale in all the recurring periods of nature, 

 whether astral, telluric, or meteorological, as well as 

 in the form and manifold phases of organisms and 

 their modes of reproduction. This universal law also 

 applies to the whole mental and organic system of 

 animals and men, whenever they become conscious of 

 their own existence. The same universal rhythm 

 constitutes the fundamental form of sound in the 

 vibration of metallic bars, or of strings, and becomes 

 perceptible to the external senses by means of our 

 organ of hearing, as also by the external and innate 

 necessity slowly developed by our habits of conscious- 

 ness, which may be termed the external causes of its 

 organic evolution and constitution. 



By these organic and cosmic tendencies, and by 

 the intrinsic impulse towards modulation of sound 

 already explained, speech first issued from the human 

 breast in harmonious accents and rhythmic form, and 



