342 
then, although he might imitate as a child does, yet the rise of 
his definite ideas would not be the result of his imitations, and 
these would be nothing more than one of the forms of activity 
which his mind-power would set in motion. We are, therefore, 
compelled to set aside the ape-mimic when he would pose as an 
interpreter of the riddle of language, and we may add with 
Prof. Whitney : — 
44 When the process of language-making began, man was man 
in esse as well as in posse , ready to have his powers drawn out 
and educated — -just as is every human being nowadays at the 
commencement of its existence. And the specific moving power 
to the working-out of speech was not the monkeyish tendency 
to imitate, but the human tendency to sociality.* * * § ’ * 
Man is, as Prof. Noire well observes, 44 the not merely 
gregarious but co-operative animal.” f Mr. Darwin remarks, 
— 44 The strong tendency in our nearest allies, the monkeys, in 
microcephalous idiots, and in the barbarous races of mankind, 
to imitate whatever they hear, deserves notice, as bearing on 
the subject of [the rise of language by means of] imitation.” J 
It certainly deserves very careful notice, and the result of such 
notice will be to bring into prominence the bridgeless gulf 
which separates the infant and the barbarian from the monkey 
and the idiot. 
13. The Co-operative Theory of Language. 
The writer who is supposed to have approached the nearest 
to the solution of the enigma of the origin of speech is Prof. 
Noire, § who has carefully considered the efforts and views of 
his predecessors in the field, and who observes of one of the 
latest and most prominent of them, 64 It was not reserved for 
Gfeiger to reach the final goal, as he hoped, and indeed, as 
appears from some indications, believed himself to have done.*’ 
The reader will perhaps conclude that we may re-read this 
passage by substituting the name of Noire for that of Geiger, 
although I am quite willing to admit its truth, so far as Geiger 
himself is concerned. In his latest work, from which the 
following quotations are taken, Noire sums up with deep 
admiration the views of Prof. Max Muller on the origin of 
language. Scientific investigation has revealed certain 44 roots ” 
* Oriental and Linguistic Studies , 296. 
t Max Muller and the Philosophy of Language , 83. 
X The Descent of Man , 87. 
§ Der TJrsprung der Sprache, 1877 ; Max Muller and the Philosophy of 
Language , 1879. 
