196 THE ASCENT OF MAN 



relation to exact science as the view that the world 

 was made in six days by direct creative fiat. Both 

 are poetically true. But to science, seeking for 

 precise methods of operation, neither is an adequate 

 statement of now ascertained facts. The same 

 processes of research that made the poetic view 

 of creation untenable in the physical realm are 

 now slowly beginning to displace the older view 

 of the origin of speech. That Language should 

 be outside a law whose universality is being estab- 

 lished with every step of progress is itself improb- 

 able ; and now that the field is being exhaustively 

 explored, the proofs that it is no exception multiply 

 on every side. The living interest the mere sug- 

 gestion gives to the study of Language is obvious. 

 Evolution enters no region — dull, neglected, or re- 

 mote — of the temple of knowledge without trans- 

 forming it. Philology, since this wizard touched 

 it, has become one of the most entrancing of the 

 sciences. And Language, from a study which 

 interested only a few specialists, is disclosed as one 

 vast palimpsest, every word and phrase luminous 

 with the inner mind and soul of the past. To 

 penetrate far into this tempting region is beyond 

 our province now. The immediate object is to 

 give a simple sketch of the possible conditions 

 which first led Man to speak ; of the principles 



