THE NEANDERTHAL SKULL. 129 



enough, and kept its mouth wide open all 

 the time, gradually be transmuted into 

 a creature as large as a whale ! 



Joking, however, apart, I may remind 

 you that there are many insuperable bars 

 to even the modified idea of a monkey 

 growing like Topsy into a man, which 

 may summarily be expressed under these 

 three heads 



1. Articulate Language. 



2. Improvable Reason. 



3. Moral Responsibility. 



On the first of these heads Darwin 

 says " Articulate language is peculiar 

 to man ; but he uses it in common 

 with the lower animals, in articulate 

 cries to express his meaning, aided 

 by gestures and the movements of the 

 muscles of the face. But it is not the 

 mere power of articulation that distin- 

 guishes man from other animals, for, 

 as every one knows, parrots can talk ; but 

 it is his large power of connecting de- 

 finite sounds with definite ideas, and 



