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Show 16 CONVERSION OF THE ORANG-OUTANG [Ch. I. tumbles indicate the natural tendency in man to resume the quadrupedal state. Now, when so much progress had been made by the quadru~ manous animals before mentionedJ that they could hold themselves habitually in an erect attitude, and were accustomed to a wide range of vision, and ceased to use their jaws for :fighting, and tearing, or for clipping herbs for food, their snout became gradually shorter, their incisor teeth became vertical, and the facial angle grew more open. Among other ideas which the natural tendency to pe·rfecfion engendered, the desire of ruling suggested itself, and this race succeeded at length in getting the better of the other animals, and made themselves masters of all those spots on the surface of the globe which best suited them. They drove out the animals which approached nearest to them in organization and intelligence, and which were in a condition to dispute with them the good things of this world, forcing them to take refuge in desertsJ woods and wildernesses, where their multiplication was checkedJ and the progressive development of their faculties retarded, while in the mean time the dominant race spread itself in every direction, and lived in large companies where new wants were successively created, exciting them to industry, and gradually perfecting their means and faculties. In the supremacy and increased intelligence acquired by the 1·uling race, we see an illustration of the natural tendency of the organic world to grow more perfect, and in their influence in repressing the advance of others, an example of one of those disturbing causes before enumerated, that force of external circumstances, which causes such wide chasms in the regular series of animated beings. When the individuals of the dominant race became very numerous, their ideas greatly increased in number, and they felt the necessity of communicating them to each other, and of augmenting and varying the signs proper for the commu- Ch. I.] INTO THE IIUMAN SPECIES. 17 nication of ideas. Meanwhile the inferior quadrumanous animals, although most of them were gregarious, acquired no new ideas, being persecuted and restless in the deserts, and ~bliged to fly and conceal themselves, so that they conceived no new wants. Such ideas as they already had remained unaltered, and they could dispense with the communication of the greater part of these. 'ro make themselves, therefore, understood by their fellows, required merely a few movements of the body or limbs-whistling, and the uttering of certain cries varied by the inflexions of the voice. On the contraryJ the individuals of the ascendant race, animated with a desire of interchanging their ideas, which became more and more numerous, were prompted to multiply the means of communication, and were no longer satisfied with mere pan-tomimic signs, nor even with all the possible inflexions of the voice, but made continual efforts to acquire the power of uttering articulate sounds, employing a few at first, but after-wards varying and perfecting them according to the increase of th:ir ":ants. . 'l'he ha~itual exercise of their throatJ tongue and hps, Insensibly modified the conformation of these organs, until they became fitted for the faculty of speech*· In effecting this mighty change, "the exigencies of the individuals were the sole agents, they gave rise to efforts, and the org~ns proper for articulating sounds were developed by their h~bi.tual employment.'' Hence, in this peculiar race, the ongm of the admirable faculty of speech; hence also the diversity of languages, since the distance of places where the indi-viduals composing the race established themselves, soon favoured the corruption of conventional signs t. "' Lamarck's Phil. Zool., tom. i. p. 356. ·~ Ibid. p. 357, Vor .. II. c |
