i6o THE ORIGIN OF HUMAN REASON. 



making faculty than does the understanding of tones 

 and gestures." Such an understanding of words as is 

 shown by a parrot, dog, or chimpanzee, is, as Mr. 

 Romanes himself allows, but the understanding of a 

 " vocal gesture," and it is acuteness of the senses, and 

 not intellect, which enables animals to apprehend such 

 gestures. Mr. Romanes himself has said * (as we have 

 seen) that " the verbal petition, ' Scratch poor Poll,' does 

 not in itself \i.e. ^^ per se "] display any further psycho- 

 logical development than depressing the head against 

 the bars of the cage." 



Speaking of what he calls " the intentional use of 

 words as signs," he says,t "Talking birds show themselves 

 capable of correctly using proper names, noun-substan- 

 tives, adjectives, verbs, and appropriate phrases, although 

 they do so by association alone, or without appreciation 

 of grammatical structure." Grammatical structure ! 

 Why, the immense majority of mankind speak with true 

 intellect and perfect logic, " without appreciation " of 

 grammatical structure ! That birds use such words of 

 different kinds " correctly," is a mere accident resulting 

 from circumstance of association, as Mr. Romanes would 

 himself assert. Nevertheless, by this use of the adverb 

 " correctly," a flavour of intellectuality is insinuated, 

 and this requires to be noted. The faculty of vocal 

 articulation, he further tells us, " is exhibited by talking 

 birds in so considerable a degree, that the animals even 

 invent names." But to "invent" is something much 

 higher than spontaneously to associate sounds with 

 sights, and Mr. Romanes has declared that " association " 

 * p. 131. t P- 138. 



