84 LESSONS FKOM NATUKE. [CHAP. IV. 



gestures of deaf mutes, who, being incapable of articu 

 lating words, have invented or acquired a true gesture- 

 language. 



The clear understanding of these distinctions is an indis 

 pensable preliminary to the study of language, in the widest 

 sense of that term ; it may be well, therefore, to recapitulate 

 the characters of the actions which respectively belong to 

 the above six categories, that they may be as clearly 

 distinguished as possible. 



The sounds emitted by brutes, however complicated or pro 

 longed, which denote merely emotions and bodily sensations, 

 belong to the first category. Mere articulate sounds, without 

 concomitant intellectual activity, such as those emitted by 

 trained parrots or jackdaws (and which, of course, are not 

 &quot; speech &quot;), belong to the second category. The third category 

 comprises inarticulate ejaculations and sounds which we 

 sometimes make use of to express our approval or disap 

 proval, our agreement or our disagreement with anything 

 said to us. Articulate expressions of mental conceptions, or 

 true speech, belong only to the fourth category. Gestures 

 which are merely the manifestations of emotions and feelings 

 are not the equivalents of speech, and belong to the fifth 

 category. But gestures without sound may be rational ex 

 ternal manifestations of internal thoughts, and, therefore, the 

 real equivalents of words. Such may serve to call attention 

 to objects, their agreements or their differences, and may 

 express approval and assent, or the reverse, to observations 

 made to us by others. All such belong to the sixth category. 

 Thus it is plainly conceivable that a brute might manifest 

 its feelings and emotions not only by gestures, but also by 

 articulate sounds, without for all that possessing even the 

 germ of real language. Similarly it is evident that a para- 

 Extemaiex- lysed man might have essentially the power of 

 necessary* speech (verbum mentale), though accidentally hin- 

 meTofra- dered from externally manifesting that inner power 

 maifty. by means of the verbum oris. Normally, the ex 

 ternal and internal powers exist inseparably. Once that the 



