Essays on Life 



human there is a mind intentionally making 

 use of a symbol accepted by another mind as 

 invariably attached to a certain idea, in order 

 to produce that idea in the mind which it is 

 desired to affect more briefly, there is a sayer, 

 a sayee, and a covenanted symbol designedly 

 applied. Our own speech is vertebrated and 

 articulated by means of nouns, verbs, and the 

 rules of grammar. A dog's speech is inverte- 

 brate, but I do not see how it is possible to 

 deny that it possesses all the essential elements 

 of language. 



I have said nothing about Professor R. L. 

 Garner's researches into the language of apes, 

 because they have not yet been so far verified 

 and accepted as to make it safe to rely upon 

 them ; but when he lays it down that all 

 voluntary sounds are the products of thought, 

 and that, if they convey a meaning to another, 

 they perform the functions of human speech, 

 he says what I believe will commend itself 

 to any unsophisticated mind. I could have 

 wished, however, that he had not limited him- 

 self to sounds, and should have preferred his 

 saying what I doubt not he would readily 



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