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 
of 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 lingua 
jranca — of the fields and of the forests. 
All sportsmen know how the particular 
cry of a frightened bird will put all 
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 Horses, 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 wonderfhl 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. 
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