THE TRANSITION IN THE RACE. 375 



of Maji. As we have already seen, however, there is this 

 important difiference. Mr. Darwin entertains only the second 

 of the three alternative hypotheses here presented, or the 

 hypothesis which assumes that the rudiments of articulate 

 speech began in the " ape-like," or " early progenitors " of 

 man. He does not seem to have entertained the idea of 

 Homo alaliis as a connecting link between these early pro- 

 genitors and Homo sapiens. I may, therefore, here briefly 

 give my reasons for thinking it probable that this connecting 

 link had an actual existence. 



Let it be observed, in the first place, that there is no 

 antagonism between the two hypotheses in question — the 

 latter, indeed, being merely an extension of the former. For 

 the latter adopts all Mr. Darwin's views as to the importance 

 of instinctive cries, danger-signals, &c., for the higher develop- 

 ment of sign-making in that " ape-like animal " which was 

 the brutal progenitor of Homo alahis* Moreover, our 

 hypothesis is entitled to assume, with Mr. Darwin's, that this 

 anthropoid ape was presumably not only more intelligent 

 than any of the few surviving species, but also much more 

 social. And this is an important point to insist upon, 

 because it is obvious that the conditions of social life are 

 also the prime conditions to any considerable advance upon 

 the sign-making faculty as this occurs in existing apes. The 

 only respect, therefore, in which the two hypotheses differ is 

 in the one supposing that the faculty of articulate sign- 

 making was a much later product of evolution than it is 

 taken to have been by the other. That is to say, while 

 Mr. Darwin's hypothesis regards the commencement of articu- 

 lation as a necessary condition to any considerable advance 

 upon the rcceptual intelligence of our brutal ancestry, the 

 present hypothesis regards it as more probable that this 

 reccptual intelligence was largely developed by gesture and 

 vocal signs, before the latter can be said to have become 



* Here also compare the first of the three hypotheses, the important elements 

 of truth in which are, as I have already more than once observed, to be considered 

 as adopted l>y Mr. Darwin's hypothesis, and therefore also l>y the present one. 



