MARXISM AND DARWINISM. 43 



For all these things, animals have but the slightest 

 propensity, but among men, these have developed es- 

 sentially new characteristics. Many animals have 

 some kind of voice, and by means of sounds they can 

 come to some understanding, but only man has such 

 sounds as serve as a medium for naming things and 

 actions. Animals also have brains with which they 

 think, but the human mind shows, as we shall see 

 later, an entirely new departure, which we designate 

 as reasonable or abstract thinking. Animals, too, 

 make use of inanimate things which they use for cer- 

 tain purposes ; for instance, the building of nests. 

 Monkeys sometimes use sticks or stones, but only man 

 uses tools which he himself deliberately makes for par- 

 ticular purposes. These primitive tendencies among 

 animals show us that the peculiarities possessed by 

 man came to him, not by means of some wonderful 

 creation, but by continuous development. 



Animals living isolated can not arrive at such a 

 stage of development. It is only as a social being that 

 man can reach this stage. Outside the pale of society, 

 language is just as useless as an eye in darkness, and 

 is bound to die. Language is possible only in society, 

 and only there is it needed as a means by which mem- 

 bers may understand one another. All social animals 

 possess some means of understanding each other, 

 otherwise they would not be able to execute certain 

 plans conjointly. The sounds that were necessary as 

 a means of communication for the primitive man while 

 at his tasks must have developed into names of activi- 

 ties, and later into names of things. 



The use of tools also presupposes a society, for it 

 is only through society that attainments can be pre- 

 served. In a state of isolated life every one has to 



