44 Dr. Bateman on Darwinism. [ur. 



cally is the inventive turn of mind which could estab- 

 lish an association between a number of vocal sounds 

 and a corresponding number of objects, and which 

 could appreciate the utility of such an association in 

 facilitating concerted action with one's fellow-crea- 

 tures ; though, as to the last point, the utility would 

 be so enormous that the maintenance of the device, 

 when once conceived, could never be in doubt. In 

 the origination of language it is but the first costly 

 step that requires consideration ; but this step obvi- 

 ously involved no superhuman mystery. It was but an 

 instance — though the greatest of all in its conse- 

 quences — of that general psychical plasticity which 

 characterises the only animal which begins life with 

 a considerable proportion of its nervous combinations 

 undetermined. 5 



It is not pretended that such considerations solve 

 the problem of the origin of speech. They never- 

 theless go far toward putting it into its proper 

 position, and indicating the class of inquiries with 

 which it must be grouped if it is to be treated in 

 that broad philosophical way which can alone 

 connect its solution with the fortunes of the Dar- 

 winian theory. The existence of language is not, 

 as Max Miiller's dicta imply, a fact in the universe 

 that is isolated or sui generis in being incapable of 



