FIFTH day's SITTINa. 105 



confined to man. All this, your Lordship will at once 

 perceive, falls far short of the mark. He then gives us a 

 dissertation on the origin of articulate language ; tells us 

 that " some early progenitor of man jjroiailij used his voice 

 largely, as does one of the gibbon-apes of the present day, 

 in producing musical cadences ;" that "monkeys certainly 

 understand much th-^t is said to them by man," and " utter 

 signal cries of danger to their fellows ;" and, in this, he 

 finds what would have been " a first step in the formation 

 of a language." (Vol. i. pp. 54-57.) 



Lord G. What are Mr. Darwin's own words on this 

 point ? 



Darwin. " As monkeys in a state of nature," my Lord, 

 " utter signal cries of danger to their fellows, it does not 

 appear altogether incredible that some unusually wise ape- 

 like animal should have thought of imitating the growl of 

 a beast of prey, so as to indicate to his fellow monkeys the 

 nature of the expected danger. And this would have been 

 a first step in the formation of a language." (Vol. i. p. 57.) 



Homo. It is rather singular, my Lord, that this " unusu- 

 ally wise ape-like animal," which Mr. Darwin cannot prove 

 ever existed, but to which, nevertheless, the thought oc- 

 curred of imitating the growl of a beast of prey, to warn 

 his fellow monkeys of danger, should not have thought 

 also of imitating the hiss of the serpent, to intimate to them 

 the proximity of that reptile, of which, according to Mr. 

 Darwin, monkeys have an instinctive dread. The organs 

 of an ape are as fit for hissing as for growling. 



Darwin, " As the voice," my Lord, " was used more and 

 more, the vocal organs would have been strengthened and 

 perfected through the principle of the inherited effects of 

 use ; and this would have reacted on the power of speech. 

 But the relation between the continued use of language, 



H 



