188 PHYSICAL BASIS OF CIVILIZATION 



sciousness of a speaker whenever certain combina- 

 tions of these sounds are uttered. The agreement 

 must extend over a considerable range of experiences. 

 These must have gone through the process of being 

 segregated, compared, distinguished, correlated, and 

 remembered. The faculty to select and interpret 

 the appropriate arbitrary terms from the ill-assorted 

 supply available when they are uttered must exist 

 in a number of persons. This is obviously not 

 possible until after higher intelligence exists. 



Besides, knowledge is the material with which 

 intelligence is occupied, and can only be originated 

 by direct intercourse with the environment, never 

 by language. Language can transmit the experience 

 of one mind to another, if that other has had similar 

 experience. A large variety of fairly specialized 

 knowledge, therefore, must exist before articulate 

 language can be of any use. From which it follows 

 that higher intelligence must antedate articulate 

 speech, and that the latter could not have been its 

 cause. 



Yet can there be no doubt that articulate speech 

 is an admirable agency for distributing knowledge, 

 for exciting, stimulating, and directing the activi- 

 ties of the mind. It is almost the only means for 

 comparing the knowledge possessed by different 

 individuals, and for eliminating errors arising from 

 personal idiosyncrasies. 



The facility with which the arbitrary terms of 

 articulate language can be separated, combined, 



