Like that, it: (1) isolates terms; (2) arranges
them in a certain order; (3) translates thoughts in a crude and somewhat
vague form. A curious example of this may be found in Max Mueller's "Chips
from a German Workshop," XIV.: "The aborigines of the Caroline Islands sent
a letter to a Spanish captain as follows: A man with extended arms, sign of
greeting; below to the left, the objects they have to barter--five big
shells, seven little ones, three others of different forms; to the right,
drawing of the objects they wanted in exchange--three large fish-hooks,
four small ones, two axes, two pieces of iron."
Language of graphic signs and spoken language have progressed together, and
simultaneously supported each other in the development of the higher mental
faculties that differentiate the savage from the brute and the civilised
human being from the savage. In spoken language, at any rate, it is not the
vocal instrument that has been changed, but the organ of mind with its
innate and invisible molecular potentialities, the result of racial and
ancestral experiences in past ages. Completely developed languages when
studied from the point of view of their evolution are stamped with the
print of an unconscious labour that has been fashioning them for centuries.
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