SIGNIFICANCE OF LANGUAGE 539 



by generation. To appreciate the advantages man en- 

 joys over the other animals in this regard he has only 

 to bear in mind that no matter how much one of the 

 lower animals might learn, or how many important in- 

 ventions he might make, his achievement would do his 

 fellow animals almost no good because his means of 

 imparting his knowledge to them are so limited. The 

 spread of information from man to man by word of 

 mouth, on the other hand, can be and often is very effec- 

 tive. The limits to the usefulness of spoken languages, 

 and by the same token the superiority of written records, 

 lie in the impermanence and lack of reliability of the 

 former, due to the fallibility of human memory, con- 

 trasted with the permanence and accuracy of the latter. 



The Significance of Language to Racial Progress 

 is twofold. In the first place, each generation is enabled 

 to begin substantially where the last left off. On the 

 whole, the important achievements of mankind are re- 

 corded, generation by generation; thus they become 

 available for succeeding ages and do not have to be 

 rediscovered. In the second place, and perhaps even 

 more importantly, language serves to make available 

 the achievements of individuals of superior attainments. 

 The point has been emphasized in a previous chapter 

 (XLII) that a certain percentage of the population is 

 definitely superior to the rank and file in intellectual 

 power. It is a fact of history which cannot be gainsaid 

 that on the whole the contributions to knowledge upon 

 which progress depends are made by the highly intel- 

 ligent minority. The actual progress itself, however, 

 depends on the adoption by the rank and file of the 

 achievements of the intelligent. Only by means of 

 language, written or spoken, is this adoption brought 

 to pass. 



Emotional Characteristics. — The emotions, or 

 feelings, represent the driving forces of human conduct. 

 In man, as in the higher animals, conduct or behavior 



