164 THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE. 



conveys information as to fundamental wants, and 

 expresses all its varying moods and wishes with a 

 vehemence and point which are almost the envy of 

 riper years. The interesting thing ahout this is that 

 it is spontaneous. In later childhood it has to be 

 taught to speak — because speech is a fine art — but to 

 utter the hereditary and primitive Language of man- 

 kind requires no prompting. Words are conven- 

 tional, movements and sounds are natural. The Lan- 

 guage of the nursery is the native Language of the 

 forest, the inarticulate cry of the animal, the into- 

 nation of the savage. To quote from Mallery : — " The 

 wishes and emotions of very young children are con- 

 veyed in a small number of sounds, but in a great 

 variety of gestures and facial expressions. A child's 

 gestures are intelligent long in advance of speech ; al- 

 though very early and persistent attempts are made to 

 give it instruction in the latter but none in the for- 

 mer, from the time when it begins risus cognoscere 

 matrem. It learns words only as they are taught, 

 and learns them through the medium of signs which 

 are not expressly taught. Long after familiarity with 

 speech it consults the gestures and facial expressions 

 of its parents and nurses, as if seeking them to trans- 

 late or explain their words. These facts are im- 

 portant in reference to the biologic law that the order 

 of development of the individual is the same as that 

 of the species. . . . The insane understand and 

 obey gestures when they have no knowledge whatever 

 of words. It is also found that semi-idiotic children 

 who cannot be taught more than the merest rudiment 

 of speech can receive a considerable amount of infor- 

 mation through signs, and can express themselves 



