CHAPTER IX. 



Facts and Fancies of Speech. — Language in the Vegetable 

 Kingdom. — Language in the Mineral Kingdom. 



In the first part of this work I have recorded 

 the material and tangible facts with which I have 

 dealt, and have not departed from such facts to 

 formulate a theory beyond a working hypothesis. 

 I have not allowed myself to be transported into 

 the realm of fancy, nor have I claimed for my 

 work anything which lies beyond the bounds of 

 proof. But in the wide range through which I 

 have sought for the first hint of speech, it is only 

 natural that many theories have suggested them- 

 selves to me from time to time, some of which 

 would appear almost like the dreams of hasheesh. 

 But while they are like the fairyland of specula- 

 tion, they are not more wild and incoherent than 

 are many of the dogmas of metaphysics. And 

 at this point I shall digress from my text so far 

 as to say that I have followed the motives of 



language through the higher planes of life, and 



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