244 Education through Nature 



this hunger gives rise to movements of the body, the 

 vague unco-ordinated attempts to appease the hunger 

 and restore the equilibrium of the body. The natural 

 desire for food, the primitive want seeking satisfaction, 

 may result in movements of limbs or in movements 

 of the vocal organs. 



It is perhaps true that those organs whose activity 

 involves least expenditure of energy, are least fatiguing 

 in other words, will be the ones that naturally become 

 active. This selection of the least fatiguing is not 

 necessarily a conscious or a deliberate choice, any 

 more than the natural selection of the fittest is a con- 

 scious act on the part of environment. Thus it comes 

 to pass that the first movements of the limbs are 

 abandoned, and the less fatiguing activity of the vocal 

 organs adopted. 



At first the unco-ordinated action of those muscles of 

 the vocal organs results in that discordant noise, the 

 infant's cry. The cry is the expression of physical 

 states, possibly wants affecting consciousness. If 

 such a cry serves its purpose the removal of uneasi- 

 ness, the satisfaction of its wants the cry will be se- 

 lected as the fittest means of satisfying wants. 



The original movements, resembling gestures and 

 later the cry, are the first indications of dawning 

 consciousness, the first sign of ideas. So far as these 

 simple signs of ideas serve to satisfy the want which 

 gave rise to them, they may be called a medium of 

 communication, the first beginnings of language. 

 Such primitive modes of expression of ideas or feel- 

 ings for the satisfaction of wants are common to the 

 lower animals, to primitive man in the lowest savage 

 state, and to the infant of the most highly civilized 

 races. 



It is important to notice that the want, or the idea 

 of a desire, is present in consciousness before the sign 

 of that idea appears; also, that the sign may vary 



