I90 THE ASCENT OF MAN 



not as subject, but like a little child, as one of the 

 objects of the external world. The words might 

 have been written historically of mankind, "When 

 I was a child, I spake as a child." 



This evidence will meet us again in other forms 

 when we pass to consider the Evolution of Lan- 

 guage itself. Meantime let us close this chapter 

 by pointing out a relation of a much more signifi- 

 cant order between Language and the whole subject 

 of Mental Evolution. For the point is not only 

 of special interest, but it touches upon, and helps 

 to' solve, one of the vital problems of the Ascent 

 of Man. 



The enormous distance travelled by the Mind of 

 Man beyond the utmost limit of intelligence reached 

 by any animal is a puzzling circumstance, a circum- 

 stance only equalled in strangeness by another — 

 the suddenness with which that rise took place. 

 Both facts are without a parallel in nature. Why, 

 of the countless thousands of species of animals, 

 each with some shadowy rudiment of a Mind, 

 all should have remained comparatively at the 

 same dead level, while Man alone shot past and 

 developed powers of a quality and with a speed 

 unknown in the world's history, is a question 

 which it is impossible not to raise. That by far 

 the greatest step in the world's history should not 



