THE TRAXSITION IN THE RACE. 38 1 



plainly but a special branch of the general onomatopoetic 

 theory ; (2) that, as such, it not improbably presents some 

 measure of truth ; and (3) that, consequently, it ought to be 

 regarded — not as it is regarded by its author Noire and its 

 advocate Max Miiller, namely, as the sole explanation of the 

 origin of speech, but — as representing only one among many 

 other ways in which, during many ages, many communities 

 of vociferous though hitherto speechless men may have slowly 

 evolved the art of making articulate signs. 



Probably it will be objected to this third hypothesis, in all 

 its branches, that it amounts to a petetio principii: Homo 

 alahis, it may be said, is Homo postulatus. To this I answer. 

 Not so. The question raised has been raised expressly and 

 exclusively on the faculty of conceptual speech, and it is con- 

 ceded that of this faculty there can hav^e been no earlier phase 

 than that of articulation. Consequently, if my opponents 

 assume that prior to the appearance of this earliest phase it 

 is impossible that any hitherto speechless animal should have 

 been erect in attitude, intelligent enough to chip flints, or 

 greatly in advance of other animals in the matter of making 

 indicative gesture-signs, assisted by vocal tones, — if my 

 opponents assume all this, it is they who are endeavouring to 

 beg the question. For they are merely assuming, in the most 

 arbitrary way, that the faculty of conceptual thought is 

 necessary in order that an animal already semi-erect, should 

 become more erect ; in order that an animal already intelligent 

 enough to use stones for cracking nuts and opening oysters, 

 should not only (as at present) choose the most appropriate 

 stones for the purpose, but begin to fashion them for these or 

 other purposes; in order that an animal already more apt than 

 any other in the use of gesture and vocal signs, should ad\ance 

 considerably along the same line of psychical improve- 

 ment.* The hypothesis that such a considerable advance 



* With regard to the erect attitude, we must rcmcnd)cr lliat, although the 

 chimpanzee and orang never adopt it, the only other kinds of anthropoid apes — 

 namely, gorilla and gibbon — frequently do so when progressing on level surfaces. 



