128 Progress and Civilisation. . PT. m. 



of communication between the different members of 

 the human race is absolutely essential to Progress ; 

 without it the mind could never have expanded 

 beyond the limits of the lower animals. Some small 

 advance in mechanical skill or workmanship may be 

 transmitted from an older to a younger generation 

 by manual instruction : a carpenter may show his 

 apprentice how to use a plane, a hammer, or a saw, 

 without the use of words, or a sailor may teach a 

 cabin-boy the art of knotting and splicing in perfect 

 silence. But there is no real difference in principle. 

 A certain mental process directs the saw or teaches 

 a sailor to knot ; it is equally an art transmitted by 

 an operation of the understanding, though the means 

 of communication are not quite the same. This 

 mode, however, of transmitting arts from one gene- 

 ration to another is far more restricted, and is, 

 indeed, of a very limited operation ; it may be con- 

 sidered as merely supplementary and auxiliary to the 

 mode of communication by Speech. Language is at 

 the root of all improvement ; it is not only that we 

 cannot speak without words, that we are altogether 

 cut off from interchanging our ideas with each other, 

 but without words we cannot think ; let any one 

 examine the operation of his own thoughts, and he 



