Darwin s Ethical Theory. 167 



guage has been developed from the cries and gest 

 ures of the lower animals. The difference lies 

 solely in the infinitely larger power which man 

 possesses of associating together the most diver 

 sified sounds and ideas. And this power, like 

 language itself, has been slowly and unconsciously 

 developed by many steps. The beginning of 

 language was not improbably made by some wise 

 ape-like animal imitating the growl of a beast of 

 prey, for the sake of warning his companions of 

 the expected attack much as at present fowls 

 give one another warning of the hawk, and mon 

 keys utter signal-cries of danger to their fellows. 

 It is true that no existing ape uses his vocal or 

 gans for speech ; but this entitles us to infer only 

 that his intelligence is not sufficiently advanced. 

 The first speaking progenitor of man must have 

 had far more highly developed mental powers 

 than the chimpanzee or gorilla. But there is 

 nothing in the faculty of articulate speech, so 

 Darwin concludes, which offers &quot; any insuperable 

 objection to the belief that man has been devel 

 oped from some lower form.&quot; 



Neither, then, in the higher intellectual facul 

 ties nor in language, which has contributed so 

 much to their development, does Darwin find 

 anything to prove that the immense difference 



