The Speech of Monkeys

CHAPTER XX. Life and Consciousness--Consciousness and Emotion--Emotion and Thought--Thought and Expression--Expression and Speech--The Vocal Organs and Sound--Speech in City and Country--Music, Passions, and Taste--Life and Reason. At the beginning of life there is a consciousness which is not more feeble than is the life with which it is associated; and as that spark of life kindles into a flame, so that spark of consciousness kindles into the "ego," and nowhere can a line be drawn at which it may be said "here consciousness first intercepted life." But as the living form develops organs and members, through the agency of the vital force, whatever that may be, so consciousness develops into desires, emotion and thought. Where shall the line be drawn which separates these attributes? Standing in the centre, we look around and see the horizon touching the plain on every side, and this appears to us as a great circle, the centre of which is always occupied by the observer, and from our standpoint we imagine that everything between us and that horizon must be that distance from the centre; but as we move our point of view from place to place, we move the circle with us, and yet we cannot find the boundary line which marks this circle at any time. In a manner not unlike this we pass from centre to centre of the circles of life, and carry with us the circle, so that at no one point do we ever appear to be much closer to the horizon than we were at any other point.