EXPRESSION. 



39 



Such a recognition, however, does afford the 

 reflection that since such a complex system of 

 symbols has certainly arisen within the limits 

 of man's existence, and has not been inherited 

 from any ancestry among the lower animals, it 

 is unnecessary to suppose that the far simpler 

 language of feature and gesture has been so in- 

 herited, even in those instances in which similar 

 movements occur in man and other animals. 



It is also instructive that the action of individuals 

 in initiating language is infinitesimal, that the art 

 of speech is acquired by observation and imitation 

 in which the learner is largely unconscious of the 

 details of the process which he imitates, and that 

 he learns the meaning of words simply by observing 

 their constant association with ideas otherwise ex- 

 pressed, but not from any appreciation of inherent 

 connection between the words and the ideas ; any 

 such connection having been in most instances 

 completely disguised long ages ago in the changes 

 through which the words have passed. This being 

 palpably the case, it is not surprising that into the 

 simpler language of feature and gesture an imit- 

 ative element largely enters, nor wonderful that 

 it presents much whose origin is difficult to account 

 for. 



