THE SPEECH OF MONKEYS. 67 



for such; but the same genius that invented 

 an alphabet for human speech, actuated by the 

 same motives and led by the same incentives, 

 could as easily invent an alphabet for simian 

 speech. It is not only true that the phonetic ele- 

 ments of our language are not represented by 

 the characters of our alphabet, but the same is 

 true to some extent of our words which do not 

 quite keep pace with human thought. In the 

 higher types of human speech there are thou- 

 sands of words and ideas which cannot be trans- 

 lated into or expressed by any savage tongue, 

 because no savage ever had use for them and no 

 savage tongue contains their equivalence. The 

 growth of speech is always measured by the 

 growth of mind. They are not always of the 

 same extent, but always bear a common ratio. 

 It is a mental product, and must be equal to the 

 task of coining thoughts into words. It is essen- 

 tial to all social order, and no community could 

 long survive as such without it. It is as much 

 the product of mind and matter as salt is the 

 product of chlorine and sodium. 



