246 Education through Nature 



for its retention. It would not be effective, however, 

 unless the mother knew what "ma" means. It is 

 useful, therefore it is selected; very much as the co- 

 ordinated contractions of certain muscles of the arm 

 are useful in bringing food to the mouth; and, conse- 

 quently, selected, while other muscular combinations; 

 not producing useful results, are eliminated. It is 

 essentially in the same way that the child learns to 

 walk. 



Speech is a form of co-ordinated muscular contrac- 

 tions, adopted because of its utility to the organism. 

 But how does this speech become adapted to the 

 environment? Precisely as other adaptations have 

 arisen. In America, the child, wanting its thirst sat- 

 isfied, finds that certain combinations of sounds, 

 watery suffice; in Germany, on the other hand, a dif- 

 ferent combination produces the same effect, namely, 

 Wasser. So far as the child is concerned, it makes no 

 difference which word is used. It adopts that com- 

 bination of sounds which is effective in bringing about 

 desired results; and, consequently, comes to use the 

 language of those with whom it associates. 



Now this explains the origin of language as a whole. 

 Language is not borrowed; it is invented at first. It 

 is invented, too, because of the existence of an idea 

 in the mind, not for the purpose of gaining ideas. A 

 boat is invented because of a desire to cross a body 

 of water dry shod. So language is invented to satisfy 

 wants; and, just as the boat is adapted to the medium, 

 so the language invented will be English in England 

 and German in Germany. An Italian, calling on 

 Patrick Murphy for work on the railroad, makes all 

 those signs which he thinks necessary to make Patrick 

 comprehend. If Patrick calls on the Italian the proc- 

 ess will be reversed; for Patrick now has the wants 

 that are to be communicated, the result being broken 

 Italian instead of broken Irish. Thus an amalgama- 



