called certain persons of the household, as well as visitors, by their
names. He said good morning to every one at breakfast, and good
night to each as they left the room at night, and never reversed these
salutations. To Sir B.J. Sulivan s father, he used to add to the good
morning a short sentence, which was never once repeated after his
father s death. He scolded violently a strange dog which came into the
room through the open window; and he scolded another parrot (saying
you naughty polly ) which had got out of its cage, and was eating
apples on the kitchen table. See also, to the same effect, Houzeau on
parrots, Facultes Mentales, tom. ii. p. 309. Dr. A. Moschkau informs
me that he knew a starling which never made a mistake in saying in
German good morning to persons arriving, and good bye, old fellow,
to those departing. I could add several other such cases.) The lower
animals differ from man solely in his almost infinitely larger power of
associating together the most diversified sounds and ideas; and this
obviously depends on the high development of his mental powers.
As Horne Tooke, one of the founders of the noble science of philology,
observes, language is an art, like brewing or baking; but writing would
have been a better simile. It certainly is not a true instinct, for
every language has to be learnt. It differs, however, widely from all
ordinary arts, for man has an instinctive tendency to speak, as we see
in the babble of our young children; whilst no child has an instinctive
tendency to brew, bake, or write. Moreover, no philologist now supposes
that any language has been deliberately invented; it has been slowly
and unconsciously developed by many steps. (53. See some good remarks
on this head by Prof. Whitney, in his Oriental and Linguistic
Studies, 1873, p. 354. He observes that the desire of communication
between man is the living force, which, in the development of language,
works both consciously and unconsciously; consciously as regards the
immediate end to be attained; unconsciously as regards the further
consequences of the act. ) The sounds uttered by birds offer in several
respects the nearest analogy to language, for all the members of the
same species utter the same instinctive cries expressive of their
emotions; and all the kinds which sing, exert their power
instinctively; but the actual song, and even the call-notes, are learnt
from their parents or foster-parents. These sounds, as Daines
Barrington (54. Hon. Daines Barrington in Philosoph. Transactions,
1773, p. 262. See also Dureau de la Malle, in Ann. des. Sc. Nat. 3rd
series, Zoolog., tom. x. p. 119.) has proved, are no more innate than
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