CONVENTIONAL LANGUAGE. 421 



with their belly crouched to the ground. To imitate 

 water, they bubbled with their mouths ; they grubbed 

 with their hands and pretended to eat, to show that 

 they had discovered roots. The pleasure and profit 

 obtained from thus communicating their ideas to one 

 another led them to invent conversation. Language 

 passed into its third stage — the Conventional or Arti- 

 ficial. Certain objects were pointed out, and certain 

 sounds were uttered, and it was agreed that those 

 sounds should always signify the objects named. At 

 first this conventional language consisted only of sub- 

 stantives ; each word signified an object, and was a 

 sentence in itself. Afterwards adjectives and verbs 

 were introduced ; and lastly, words which had at first 

 been used for physical objects were applied to the 

 nomenclature of ideas. 



Combination is a method of resistance ; language is 

 the instrument of combination. Language, therefore, 

 may be considered the first weapon of our species, and 

 was improved, as all weapons would be, by that long, 

 never-ceasing war, the Battle of Existence. Our 

 second weapon was the Hand. With monkeys the 

 hand is used as a foot, and the foot is used as a hand. 

 But when the hand began to be used for throwing 

 missiles, it was specialised more and more, and feet 

 were required to do all the work of locomotion. 

 This separation of the foot and hand is the last in- 

 stance of the physiological division of labour ; and 

 when it was effected, the human frame became com- 

 plete. The erect posture was assumed : that it is 

 modern and unnatural is shown by the difficulty 

 with which it is maintained for any length of time. 

 The centre of gravity being thus shifted, certain altera- 

 tions were produced in the physical appearance of the 



