The Speech of Monkeys

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.