The Speech of Monkeys

[Sidenote: LIFE AND CONSCIOUSNESS] The classification of genera and species is in a great degree arbitrary; but much less so than are these abstract characters of life and mind. There is nowhere a line at which emotion stops and thought begins; there is nowhere a line at which thought stops and expression begins; there is nowhere a line at which expression stops and speech begins. These blend into each other so that only by comparing the extremes can we discern a difference. The tenets of metaphysics have heretofore been made to harmonise with the tenets of theology, and hence it is that we have learned to follow the laws laid down by others and not to think for ourselves. It has been as much a heresy to gainsay the dogmas of science as those of religion until recently; and even now the tender-footed doctors guard their theories with a vigilance and jealousy worthy of the angel that guarded the gates of Eden. [Sidenote: CONSCIOUSNESS AND EMOTION] Why should it be thought strange that monkeys talk? They see, hear, love, hate, think, and act by the same means and to the same end as man does. They experience pain and pleasure, to express which they cry and laugh just as man does. If the voluntary sounds they make do not mean something, why may those creatures not as well be dumb? If they do mean something, why may we not determine what that meaning is? It is true that their language is quite meagre and suited only to a low plane of life, but it may be the cytula from which all human speech proceeds, or it may be the inferior fruit borne upon the same great tree of speech. The organs of sensation in these creatures are modelled by the same design as those of man, are adapted to the same uses, and discharge the same functions. Then why should the vocal powers alone be abnormal, except in a degree measured by the difference of place which they occupy in the scale of Nature?