of natural
selection and survival of the fittest that the voice has gained the
upper hand, and come to be so much the most prominent that we give the
name of language (tonguiness) to all expression." A single utterance or
two at first had to do the duty of a whole clause; afterward man learned
to piece together parts of speech, and thus arose sentences.

Although no language, as has already been said, has been deliberately
invented, "still each word may not be unfitly compared to an invention;
it has its own place, mode, and circumstances of devisal, its
preparation in the previous habits of speech, its influence in
determining the after progress of speech development; but every language
in the gross is an institution, on which scores or hundreds of
generations and unnumbered thousands of individual workers have
labored."[59]

There is no question at all but that the mental powers in the earliest
progenitors of man must have been more highly developed than in the ape,
before even the most imperfect form of speech could have come into use;
but the constant advancement of this power would have reacted on the
mind to enable it to carry on longer trains of thought. "A complex train
of thought," says Darwin, "can no more be carried on without the aid of
words, whether spoken or silent, than a long calculation without the use
of figures in algebra. It appears also that even an ordinary train of
thought almost requires or is greatly facilitated by some form of
language; for the dumb, deaf, and blind girl, Laura Bridgman, was
observed to use her fingers while dreaming.[60] Nevertheless a long
succession of vivid ideas may pass through the mind, without the aid of
any form of language, as we may infer from the movements of dogs during
their dreams."

The struggle for existence is going on in every language; one after
another will be swept out of existence, and the languages best fitted
for the practical uses of the masses of people will alone survive. Max
Mueller has well remarked: "A struggle for life is constantly going on
amongst the words and grammatical forms in each language. The better the
shorter; the easier forms are constantly gaining the upper hand, and
they owe their success to their own inherent virtue."[61]

It must not be thought for a moment that that which distinguishes a man
from the lower animals is the understanding of articulate sounds--for,
as every one knows, dogs understand many words and sentences; a