408 THE NATURE OF TRADITION 



of the instincts is a great advantage. Secondly the immature 

 period is prolonged. In comparision with the higher animals the 

 immature period occupies a far longer proportion of the normal 

 term of life and thus there is provided a far longer period in which 

 learning can proceed. Lastly there is the power of speech. 



The question has been much debated as to whether there can 

 be thought on the conceptual level without language. It would 

 seem that conceptual thought can only exist without language 

 when of a very rudimentary kind. ' Language is not merely 

 an accompaniment of conceptual activity ; it is an instrument 

 essential to its development. It is an appropriate means of 

 fixing attention upon ideally represented objects as distinguished 

 from percepts.' ^ Language, on the other hand, so far as it is 

 a means of communication concerning objects outside the actual 

 range of perception, can only arise between persons capable of 

 conceptual thought. And this is essentially the function of lan- 

 guage. It reflects the conceptions by which empirical data are 

 brought into relation. * Resemblances of quality are expressed 

 by general terms, continuity of existence by individual names, 

 the relation of ideas and the order of connexion in thought by 

 the arrangement of words in a sentence.' ^ Language expresses 

 that breaking up and re-combination of the elements of experience 

 which we have seen to be the essential features of conceptual 

 thought. 



Language makes possible the influence of mind upon mind, 

 and is the basis of all human social development. It fixes the mind 

 of a thinker upon his own ideas, and, when in communication 

 with another person, it fixes the mind of the hearer upon the 

 ideally represented objects present in the mind of the speaker. 

 Into its origin it is not necessary to go. But it may be observed 

 that, just as the generahzed nature of the instincts and the 

 prolonged immature period enabled the fullest use to be made 

 of the power of conceptual thinking, so the fact that the mouth 

 and the throat, usually otherwise unoccupied, were ready at hand 

 as convenient instruments of communication enabled speech to 

 be developed without occupying other organs, such as the hands, 

 which could be profitably employed at the same time for other 

 purposes. 



» Stout, Manual of Psychology, p. 597. » Hobhouse, Development and 



Purpose, p. 91. 



