Facts and Fancies of Speech--Language in the Vegetable
Kingdom--Language in the Mineral Kingdom.
In the early 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 themselves 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 speculation, 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 thence downward to the very sunrise to the vegetable
kingdom, and on through the dim twilight across the mineral world to
that point where elemental matter is first delivered from the hands of
force. Standing upon the elevated plane of human development, it is
difficult for man to stoop to the level of those inferior forms from
which he is so far removed in all his faculties; but if his senses could
be made so delicate as to discern the facts, he would find perhaps that
in the polity of life all horizons are equidistant from each other. But
looking back from where he stands, his powers fail to reach the real
point of vital force at which all life began, and his contracted senses
bring the vanishing point of this perspective far into the foreground of
the facts.
From the highest type of human speech to the feeblest hint of
expression there is a gradual descent, and at no point between these two
extremes can there be drawn a line at which it may be said "here one
begins, and here another ends." The same is true of other faculties; and
from the vital centre at which matter first receives the touch of life
to the circumference of the vital sphere, all powers radiate alike, and
there is no point that I can find between that centre and infinity at
which some new endowment intercepts the line.
Descending the scale of life by long strides, from man to the lowest
form of zooids, we cannot designate the point at which a faculty is
first imparted to the form which has it, and this truth extends
throughout the vital cosmos.
[Sidenote: LANGUAGE IN THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM]
The line of demarcation which separates the animal and vegetable is but
a wavering, blended mezzotint, and the highest forms of vegetable life
seem to overlap the lowest forms of animal, so far that no dividing line
is positively fixed. The highest types of vegetable seem to have the
faculty of expression in a degree corresponding to, and in harmony with,
the rest of their organism. I do not mean to say that the impulse under
which a plant acts is synonymously with that which prompts the animal,
but both appear to be the effect of the same cause.
In some forms of vegetation the selection of food of certain kinds and
the aversion to other certain kinds, would indicate that the organism is
capable of design and purpose in a degree perhaps much higher than some
of the lowest forms of the animal kingdom. The reaching out of roots in
search of food in the earth, the opening and closing of leaf and bloom,
seeking the moisture and carbon from the atmosphere, suggest a feeble
expression of desire. The choice of food is so well defined in some
plants as to indicate a power of selection far greater than some
protozoans exercise. It is a known fact that a change of food and
conditions often modify a plant in such degree as to make it difficult
to recognise except by the technical laws of classification, and yet its
identity is not lost. Such changes do not effect all plants in the same
degree, as some of them will undergo a change of diet or conditions
without material effect. In many instances a marked dislike to certain
kinds of food has been observed, and the sensitiveness of some plants is
shown in the foliage, bloom, and even in the roots.
[Sidenote: LANGUAGE OF THE MINERAL KINGDOM]
In passing from the vegetable to the mineral kingdom, we find a like
diffusion of types overlapping and blending into each other. Some forms
of vegetation are so low in the scale of organism as to make it
difficult to say whether they are vegetable or mineral compounds. Of
course we find no trace of speech, but there is that hint of expression
or suggestion of desire as found in the vegetable kingdom. In the
chemical world one element will select another with which it will
combine, while to other elements it shows a great aversion. When one
chemical element selects another and combines with it we call this
chemical affinity. The ultimate force which causes this affinity is one
of the unknown facts concerning matter; but it is possible that such
affinities and aversions constitute the basis upon which rests the
selections and aversions of plants and animals. But as we rise in the
scale the combinations of matter become more complex and the functions
of each part more specific. It is possible, when we become more familiar
with the forces of Nature, that we shall find that affinity and
repulsion are but the positive and negative poles of the forces which
act on matter; that chemical, vegetable and animal activity are based
upon the same fundamental causes, and that speech, which is only one
form of expression, is the highest product of such an ultimate force,
but in all conditions of matter, such forces, either positive or
negative, are the ultimate motives of expression.
[Sidenote: VITALISATION OF MATTER]
As chemical formulas differ from each other without losing the identity
of their elements which constitute them, so animal organisms and plant
forms differ as the spheres of life to which they are assigned differ.
It is possible that chemical affinity may be the germ from which all
language springs, as the chemical elements are the materials from which
all compounds are built up. The vitalisation of matter itself, and the
arrangement of the ultimate particles which constitute a living body,
are the work of the vital force in a polarised condition. This will
account, in a measure, for all the individuals of one type selecting one
mode of expression, as they select or conform to one physical outline.
In every rank of life there seems to be some intuitive mode of
expression which suggest itself to all the individuals of that kind when
they desire, under the same conditions, to express the same thing. The
exceptions to this law of expression increase in number as we rise in
the scale of life, and the means of expression increase and widen and
the faculty of thought enlarges. The laws of chemical affinity are
rigid and uncompromising, and there are but few exceptions in them, and
only marked changes of condition can modify the results. As we ascend
even in the mineral kingdom to the higher compounds we find a wider
range of variation; and as we continue our ascent through the vegetable
world, we find the same, and on through animals to the highest type. In
the lower planes types are more strictly adhered to, habits and food
more rigidly observed, while among the highest types of cultivated
plants we find a great diversity of fruit and bloom, the capability of
transplanting and the creation of new species, without losing the
generic identity of the plant or even making it questionable. In the
animal kingdom the same law is complied with; and step by step as we
ascend the same types show greater and greater diversity, until we reach
man--the climax of all life, and within his genus, variation knows no
bound.
[Sidenote: CONCLUSION]
In conclusion, I may say that man as he now is has the faculty of
speech. It is reasonable to believe that he has always had this faculty
since he was man. If there has ever been a time in the history of his
organism when he acquired his being from some progenitor which was not
man, he acquired at the same time the faculty of speech, and that
progenitor did not impart a thing which he did not have. While it is
true that speech, as I have used it, is confined to vocal sounds, other
modes of expression have preceded it, and such has been a common faculty
inherent through all forms and planes of life. I am aware that two
ingredients combined may make a compound unlike either one, and such may
be the case with speech, but the elements which constitute the compound
must have been for ever present.