The Speech of Monkeys

As the use of the natural sense of taste makes possible the choice of nourishment, and all forms of life are thus sustained, the natural taste becomes an important factor of their comfort, and upon this physical basis rests, perhaps, the whole superstructure of ethics. The first idea of ownership is doubtless found in the possession of food; and this right of property is protected by the unwritten laws of incipient life. The faculty of reason, which man has arrogated to himself, is only limited by that dim line which bounds the vital sphere and sheds its rays through all the kingdom of life, from that point where the vital spark first lights the monad, through all the labyrinths of change, to man in the full pride of his divinity, standing upon the threshold of the angelic state. It is not by the exercise of reason that water flows down hill, or that matter obeys the law of gravity; but in the exercise of autonomy, however feeble may be the motive, reason guides the act. The power of this faculty is measured by the development of others, and there is no point between the two extremes at which reason intercepts life. The degree in which all the powers of sense and faculty are developed determines the horizon of the thing which possesses them. The aggregation of powers to act constitutes life; and the aggregation of powers to guide the action constitutes reason. [Sidenote: ALL MAMMALS REASON]