LANGUAGE. 



CHAPTER XI. 



LANGUAGE IN LOWER MAN. 



PRESUMPTUOUS man never made a graver mistake than 

 when he distinctively defined himself as differing from all 

 other animals in the possession of language. He has fallen 

 into error by ignorance of what language is ' any manner 

 of expressing thought,' and, it may be added of expressing 

 feeling, idea, wish, or intention. This is the comprehensive 

 sense of the term the sense in which it is used in this 

 volume. It is the definition of the word according to the 

 most recent English dictionaries. 



Speech, articulate language, written and printed language, 

 are mere forms of language, the forms with which civilised 

 nations are no doubt most familiar; but they are neither 

 the most common nor the most important forms of general 

 language, which includes many kinds of what have been 

 variously denominated gesture, sign, pantomimic or mimic, 

 sound, look, and eye language. In other words, even in 

 man the outward, visible, or audible exponents of feeling 

 and thought are both numerous and varied constituting a 

 general language of expression. 



Those forms of physical expression which are not vocal 

 for instance, the language of the look or eye are frequently 

 incomparably more powerful in their influence more elo- 



