184 THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE. 



next stage in the Evolution of Language. As we have 

 seen, the introduction of speech into the world was 

 delayed, not because the possibilities of it were not in 

 Nature, but because the instrument was not quite 

 ready. Then the instrument came, and Man spoke. 

 The development of the organ and the development of 

 the function went on together, arrived together, were 

 perfected together. What delayed the gesture-lan- 

 guage of the telegraph was not that electricity was 

 not in Nature, but the want of the instrument. 

 When that came, the gesture-language came, and both 

 were perfected together. What delayed the telephone 

 was not that its principle was not in Nature, but that 

 the instrument was not ready. What now delays its 

 absolute victory of space is not that space cannot be 

 bridged, but that it is not ready. May it not be that 

 that which delays the power to transport and drive 

 one's thought as thought to whatever spot one wills, 

 is not the fact that the possibility is withheld by 

 Nature, but that the hour is not quite come — that the 

 instrument is not yet fully ripe ? Are there no signs, 

 is the feeling after it no sign, are there not even now 

 some facts, to warrant us in treating it, after all that 

 Evolution has given us, as a still possible gift to the 

 human race ? What strikes one most in running the 

 eye up this graduated ascent is that the movement is 

 in the direction of what one can only call spirituality. 

 From the growl of a lion we have passed to the 

 whisper of a soul; from the motive fear, to the motive 

 sympathy ; from the icy physical barriers of space, to 

 a nearness closer than breathing ; from the torturing 

 slowness of time to time's obliteration. If Evolution 

 reveals anything, if science itself proves anything, it 



