538 MAN'S PLACE IN NATURE 



particularly in early years, receives in addition a vast 

 amount of instruction by means of language. The sum 

 total of the child's education, gained thus, exceeds by 

 many fold the utmost that any of the lower animals can 

 achieve. As was emphasized in Chapter XV, memory 

 and association have their prime importance as the means 

 whereby the organism is enabled to profit by experi- 

 ence. Language extends this ability so that it includes 

 the experience of others, both present and past. It must 

 be borne in mind that in the absence of language only 

 those experiences which have happened directly to the 

 organism or have come within its immediate range are 

 of any value to it. But with language added as a feat- 

 ure of associated memory, the experience of a great many 

 other individuals becomes available as a guide to conduct. 

 Students of history believe that spoken language came 

 into use among human beings earlier than written. 

 Spoken language is narrower in its application than 

 written, because of the impermanence of the thing which 

 gives rise to the stimulation in the one case, as contrasted 

 with its permanence in the other. In the main, spoken 

 language covers the present experience of others, or their 

 experiences in the recent past; the longer ago the experi- 

 ence the greater the liability to error in its imparting. 

 Written language, on the other hand, permits the making 

 of permanent and accurate records of past experiences, 

 and so their utilization in identical form at any time. 



Language as a Factor in Individual Progress. — 

 Considered from the standpoint of the individual, there 

 is no doubt that language as an aid to clear thinking has 

 contributed greatly to the advancement of mankind. No 

 person with sufficient intelligence to think at all, but 

 achieves much more than he otherwise would through 

 his ability to think in terms of words. From the stand- 

 point of the race, language, the spoken word to a 

 great extent and the written in incalculable measure, 

 has forwarded progress nation by nation and generation 



