deliver what may be called the royal 

 speech on the one or two great and 

 signal occasions of her exemplary life. 

 We should, however, confine the 

 subject in the boundary of far too 

 close a fancy if it were imagined that 

 sound was the only way in which 

 speech and intercourse may pass 

 among these humble creatures. Hu- 

 man beings naturally gather up that 

 idea by living themselves in an atmos- 

 phere of which they agitate the waves 

 for objects of mutual communication. 

 No scientific Bee or highly educated 

 Ant, it such creatures were possible, 

 seeing and hearing men and women 

 talk to each other, would dream that 

 they could equally well exchange 

 thoughts by making marks upon 

 paper, or send their messages of love 

 and business by seas and lands through 

 a quivering wire. Nay, if report is to 

 be believed, we are soon to be able to 

 transmit, at a flash over long distances, 

 a face, a map, a plan, a picture, a 

 whole page of a newspaper, or an 

 actual scene. As, therefore, those 

 lower creatures, if they indeed could 

 hear us speak, would have no notion 

 of how we make the air waves into 

 words, and still less grasp knowledge 

 of any subtler form among human 

 intercourse, so it is not quite safe for 

 man to think and call all these strange 

 families of the silent world alike dumb, 

 or to despise them for being free of 

 grammars and dictionaries. As a matter 

 of fact, it is obvious that some power 

 or mutual communication assuredly 

 comes to all creatures that live in 

 societies. Nobody can watch the flight 

 of a flock of birds, the behavior of a 

 herd of cattle, or, lower down, the 

 marvelous accommodations for com- 

 mon existence of the small creeping 

 and flying things, without perceiving 

 that they know each other's minds in 

 some way or other in a very satisfactory 

 manner. Evidently there is, to begin 

 with, a common language — a lingtca 

 franca — of the fields and of the forests. 

 All sportsmen know how the particular 



cry of a frightened bird will put aU 

 the wild animals on the alert who 

 would otherwise quite disregard the 

 bird's ordinary note. And the evil 

 success with which poachers can 

 imitate the cries of love and defiance 

 from denizens of the woodlands, proves 

 that its inhabitants possess a vocabu- 

 lary which can be stolen. 



But, who, in truth, loving Dogs and 

 Cats and such-like humble friends ever 

 can doubt their high intelligence and 

 the strong and clear significance 

 attaching to certain .among their 

 habitual utterances? Even London 

 cab and cart H )rses, though they 

 cannot — fortunately for some among 

 us — speak, grow to understand the few 

 invariable words of direction which 

 their drivers address to them. In the 

 inferior orders of life there are doubt- 

 less many other methods of intercourse, 

 and almost certainly there exists a 

 plain and very useful language of 

 touch. Nobody can read the delight- 

 ful researches of Sir John Lubbock 

 into the habits and customs of Ants 

 without feeling persuaded that those 

 little beings transact their business 

 perfectly well by touching each other's 

 antennae. When Ants meet, a rapid 

 passage of these wonderful organs 

 takes place, gliding like rapiers above 

 and below, and this quickly informs 

 them whether they be friends or 

 enemies, which is the nearest respective 

 road home, whether any food is to be 

 procured nigh at hand, and what is 

 the general news in the formicatory 

 world. Truly it would be more de- 

 sirable to learn what Bees talk about 

 rather than to discuss the problem 

 whether they talk at all. The views 

 of Bees upon the purposes and colors 

 of flowers, upon the moral duties of 

 frugality and loyalty, and as to the 

 real meaning and lovliness of a Rose, 

 would be worth hearing. Of this much 

 we may be all assured, that the little 

 things of the world evade our knowl- 

 edge as much and are quite as marvel- 

 ous as the very largest and highest. 



109 



