THE PATH OF EVOLUTION 



The difficulty in using articulate language would lie 

 in the capacity of the brain to co-ordinate the produc- 

 tion of a certain sound with the identity of the thing 

 or purpose desired ; not merely in the capacity of the 

 vocal organs or power of articulation. When 

 this co-ordination of desire, will and utterance was 

 once established, man could speak. The further 

 perfection of language would be the work of practice 

 and of time alone. 



After the attainment of speech, countless centuries 

 must again have passed away, even to times historic, 

 before the art of writing was acquired. Many savage 

 tribes are even yet without it. The Epics of War 

 and of Mythology found vocal expression and long 

 continuance of life in the cultivated memories of the 

 Thracian poets, the Greek Rhapsodists, the Scalds 

 of Scandinavia and the Bards of Cymri and of Bre- 

 tagne. In these epics, transmitted orally and chanted 

 or sung, the poetic form and rythm preserved with 

 wonderful accuracy from generation to generation the 

 memory of real or of imaginary deeds, until in long 

 after years they were committed to writing. In this 

 way a few of the brightest thoughts from the distant 

 past have reached us : all else died with or soon after 

 the brains that gave them birth. 



When writing was perfected, and records of past 

 thoughts and acts existed so as to be preserved 



