176 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 



Another distinction must be made between the natural signs of 

 articulate speech and the artificial signs of writing, etc. But spoken 

 language being evidently prior to written, a fact which history her- 

 self teaches, and the language of physical expression, although an 

 earlier form, admitting of no definite treatment, on account of its 

 subjective and individual character, it necessarily follows that any 

 investigation into primitive language must concern itself with the 

 second of these forms. We shall, therefore, in this paper under- 

 stand by language the representation of mental modes or ideas by- 

 means of conventional articulate sounds. 



EXAMINATION OF EXISTING THEORIES. 



The existing theories on the origin of language may be divided 

 into the following classes : 



1. The theory that man at his creation was endowed with a 

 perfect language, which, as his knowledge grew through experience, 

 he was enabled to apply for the purpose of fixing his acquired know- 

 ledge. This theory supposes that language may precede thought 

 and exist without it. Experience teaches us that the very opposite 

 to this is the case ; for when thought is destroyed language must 

 cease, whilst on the other hand, when the power of speech has been 

 lost, thought may proceed by means of other signs. Moreover, 

 granting the possession by the first man of such a language, his 

 words would be to him but meaningless cries, and the formation of 

 language proper would still remain to be worked out. 



2. The second view, which goes to the opposite extreme, sup- 

 poses language to be a human invention, adopted by mutual com- 

 pact for the convenience of man. Such a view must err, however, 

 in the fact that the ability to invent and adopt implies that the race 

 had made considerable advancement, whereas, as will be seen later, 

 thought can make no advance without some form of thought repre- 

 sentation. Moreover, the very fact of a mutual compact implies the 

 possession of some form of thought communication. 



3. A third view looks upon language neither as a ready made 

 gift, nor as a human invention in the strict sense of the word, but 

 rather as a conscious growth accompanying and dependent on men- 

 tal development. In other words, that the gift of intelligence im- 

 plies a two-fold power, power of thought and power of thought 

 expression. This theory, which seems the only one void of contra- 



