THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE 197 



which apparently guided the formation of his early 

 vocabulary ; and of the gradual refining of the 

 means of intercommunication between him and his 

 fellow-men as time passed on. Instead of be- 

 ginning with words, therefore, we shall begin with 

 Man. For the first condition for understanding 

 the Evolution of Speech is that we take it up as 

 a study from the life, that we place ourselves in 

 the primeval forest with early Man, in touch with 

 the actual scenes in which he lived, and note the 

 real experiences and necessities of such a lot. We 

 may indeed discover in this research small trace of 

 a miraculous inbreathing of formal words. But to 

 make Speech and fit it into a man, after all is 

 said, is less miraculous than to fit a man to make 

 Speech. 



One of the earliest devices hit upon in the course 

 of Evolution was the principle of co-operation. 

 Long before men had learned to form themselves 

 into tribes and clans for mutual strength and 

 service, gregariousness was an established institu- 

 tion. The deer had formed themselves into herds, 

 and the monkeys into troops ; the birds were in 

 flocks, and the wolves in packs ; the bees in hives, 

 and the ants in colonies. And so abundant and 

 dominant in every part of the world are these 

 social types to-day that we may be sure the 



