The Speech of Monkeys

[Sidenote: VITALISATION OF MATTER] As chemical formulas differ from each other without losing the identity of their elements which constitute them, so animal organisms and plant forms differ as the spheres of life to which they are assigned differ. It is possible that chemical affinity may be the germ from which all language springs, as the chemical elements are the materials from which all compounds are built up. The vitalisation of matter itself, and the arrangement of the ultimate particles which constitute a living body, are the work of the vital force in a polarised condition. This will account, in a measure, for all the individuals of one type selecting one mode of expression, as they select or conform to one physical outline. In every rank of life there seems to be some intuitive mode of expression which suggest itself to all the individuals of that kind when they desire, under the same conditions, to express the same thing. The exceptions to this law of expression increase in number as we rise in the scale of life, and the means of expression increase and widen and the faculty of thought enlarges. The laws of chemical affinity are rigid and uncompromising, and there are but few exceptions in them, and only marked changes of condition can modify the results. As we ascend even in the mineral kingdom to the higher compounds we find a wider range of variation; and as we continue our ascent through the vegetable world, we find the same, and on through animals to the highest type. In the lower planes types are more strictly adhered to, habits and food more rigidly observed, while among the highest types of cultivated plants we find a great diversity of fruit and bloom, the capability of transplanting and the creation of new species, without losing the generic identity of the plant or even making it questionable. In the animal kingdom the same law is complied with; and step by step as we ascend the same types show greater and greater diversity, until we reach man--the climax of all life, and within his genus, variation knows no bound.