Prehistoric and Savage Man 185 



second place we do not know but that vague, incipient con- 

 ceptions accompany the utterance of even the first spoken 

 words. The son of a friend of mine, now a very distinguished 

 young man, alarmed his father by the length of time he 

 remained unable to speak, but he showed by an elaborate 

 language of gesture that he had distinct intellectual concep- 

 tions. Deaf-mutes are a very instructive class, for they 

 clearly exemplify how secondary is the spoken word to the 

 mental concept. 



I have desired, even at the risk of wearying you, to 

 impress upon your attention the distinctions I have now 

 pointed out, for without a clear apprehension of them it is 

 a hopeless task to consider the problem of man's nature and 

 origin ; and yet, strange to say, men of great repute venture 

 not only to attack that problem, but to widely promulgate 

 their views, while remaining all the time in apparently con- 

 tented ignorance that any such distinctions exist. Wonder- 

 ful is the confusion of thought which exists on the subject of 

 language. It is almost enough to make one despair of 

 progress when one hears men affirm — in the face of such 

 obvious facts as have been just adverted to — that human 

 reason has been evolved by speech. As Wilhelm von Hum- 

 boldt has declared : ' Man is man only through speech, but 

 in order to invent it he must be already man.' 



I turn now to a consideration of the third proposition (3) 

 — The higher animals show signs of morality ; and here I 

 have to also meet the assertion that tribes of men are devoid 

 of it. 



Just as in the matter of language, so also in the question 

 of morality, attention must be directed to a fundamental 

 distinction. 



Our moral activity consists of an intellectual perception 

 which is generally accompanied by a certain feeling, but the 

 essence of moral action is in the perception and consequent 



