190 THE SPEECH OF MONKEYS. 



the bell-cord or lifting the knocker, or how readily cows 

 familiarize themselves with the mechanism of gates, to 

 the frequent vexation of farmers. It is well known 

 that monkeys living near the seashore evince extraordi- 

 nary expertness in opening oysters with sharp stones. 

 It would require only a very slight increase of intelligence 

 to learn to break a stone into proper shape, and thus by 

 fabricating a tool to bring himself abreast, intellectually, 

 with the flint-chipping man of the early stone age. 

 Monkeys use stones as hammers and sticks as levers, and 

 appreciate the advantage to be derived from this simplest 

 of the mechanical powers. With them, as with primitive 

 or uneducated men, this knowledge is purely empirical, 

 a product of experience, and does not imply a perception 

 of mathematical truths. 



Another characteristic claimed to prove the superiority 

 of man, the use of fire, is by no means common to man- 

 kind alone, and on the other side, not common to all man- 

 kind. Homo sapiens inhabited the earth for ages before 

 he discovered methods of generating this element and 

 making it subservient to his interests. The habitual use 

 of fire is the sign of a very considerable advancement 

 towards civilization, and marks an important epoch in 

 the evolution of the race. Chimpanzees, gorillas, and 

 orang-outangs, have repeatedly been seen bringing brush- 

 wood and throwing it on the camp-fires, which travelers 

 travelers had left burning, while we know from different 

 that there are savage tribes of men who did not know a 

 fire, and who were very much frightened when they saw 

 it for the first time, while others came near, trying to 

 touch it and to carry the flame away, and when they 

 were burnt, thought that a wild animal had bitten them. 



The assertion that animals do not plant seeds in the 

 earth and raise crops is proved to be wrong, as it has 

 now been ascertained beyond a doubt that in Texas and 

 South America, as well as in Southern Europe, India, 



14:6 



