CHAP. IV.] LANGUAGE. 85 



intellectual activity exists, it seeks external expression by 

 symbols verbal, manual, or what not the voice or gesture- 

 language. Some form of symbolic expression is therefore 

 the necessary consequence of the possession of reason by an 

 animal frame ; while it is impossible that true speech can for 

 a moment exist without the co-existence with it of that in 

 tellectual activity of which it is the outward expression as 

 well might the concavities of a sigmoid line be supposed to 

 exist without its convexities. 



We have said that a rational animal, if it exists at all, 

 must acquire some form of expressing by external bodily 

 symbols its internal expressions ; and Mr. Tylor has made some 

 remarks* respecting deaf-mutes which help to justify this 

 assertion. He says, that though the existence of deaf-mutes 

 proves that men may have thought without speech, yet not 

 without &quot;any physical expression,&quot; rather &quot;the reverse.&quot; 

 That men, not altogether paralysed, might have reason and 

 yet no mode of externally manifesting it, is, however, a 

 proposition which no sound philosopher ever dreamed of 

 maintaining. 



However, as has been said, the confusion generally existing 

 on the subject of language is surprising ; and it Prevalent 

 must be admitted that few recent intellectual phe- the subject.&quot; 

 nomena are more astounding than the ignorance of these 

 elementary yet fundamental distinctions and principles, ex 

 hibited even by conspicuous and widely-esteemed writers. 

 Mr. Darwin, for example, does not exhibit the faintest indi 

 cation of having grasped them ; yet a clear perception of 

 them, and a direct and detailed examination of his facts with 

 regard to them, was a sine qua non for attempting, with a 

 chance of success, the solution of the mystery as to the 

 descent of man. I actually heard Professor Vogt at Norwich 

 (at the British Association Meeting of 1868), in discussing 

 certain cases of aphasia, declare before the whole physiolo 

 gical section, &quot; Je ne comprends pas la parole dans un homme 



into the Early History of Mankind, p. 68. 



