The Speech of Monkeys

Leaving the realm of metaphysics and returning to the order of primates, to which we shall confine our present work, I shall resume by repeating that not only do primates have the faculty of speech, but the whole family of mammals have some form of speech which is in keeping with their conditions of life. In addition to this declaration, I assert that all mammals reason by the same means and to the same ends, but not to the same degree. The reason which controls the conduct of a man is just the same in kind as that which prompts the ape. The latter cannot carry the process to such a great extent, but microsophic pedants have not shown in what respect the methods differ only in degree. That same faculty which guided man to tame the winds of commerce, taught the nautilus to lift its tentacles and embrace the passing breeze. Yet we are told that reason guides the man and instinct guides the nautilus. These are but two names for light; the one is dawn, the other noon, but both are light. I cannot see in what respect the light of a lamp differs from that of a bonfire except in volume; they are the products of the same forces in Nature, acting through the same media, and, becoming causes, produce the same effects. That psychic spark which dimly glows in the animal bursts into a blaze of effulgence in man.