THE EVOLUTlbN OF LANGUAGE 203 



main elements in Language but the only elements. 

 The eloquence which enthrals the legislators of St. 

 Stephen's, or the appeal which melts the wor- 

 shippers at St. Paul's, originated in the voices of 

 the forest and the activities of the ant-hill. To 

 those who have not realized the exceeding small- 

 ness of the beginnings of all new developments, 

 the suggestion of science as to the origin of Lan- 

 guage, like many of its other suggestions about 

 early stages, will seem almost ludicrous. But a 

 knowledge of two things warns one not to look 

 for surprises at the beginning of Evolution but at 

 the end. In the first place, it is all but a cardinal 

 principle that developments are brought about by 

 minute, slow and insensible degrees. The second 

 fact is even more important. The theatre of change 

 is the actual world, and the exciting cause some- 

 thing really happening in every-day life. New 

 departures are not made in the air. They arise 

 in connection with some commonplace event ; and 

 usually take the shape of some slightly new response. 

 In other connections, of course, the converse is 

 also true, but when a change occurs for the first 

 time in the life of an organism the exciting cause, 

 whatever the internal adaptation, or want of it, 

 is some change in the environment. Among the 

 events then, actually happening in the day's round, 



