urale." With the voice man
at first imitated the few sounds of nature, while with gesture he
exhibited actions, motions, positions, forms, dimensions, directions,
and distances, and their derivatives. It would appear from this
unequal division of capacity that oral speech remained rudimentary
long after gesture had become an art. With the concession of all
purely imitative sounds and of the spontaneous action of the vocal
organs under excitement, it is still true that the connection between
ideas and words generally depended upon a compact between the
speaker and hearer which presupposes the existence of a prior mode of
communication. That was probably by gesture, which, in the apposite
phrase of Professor SAYCE, "like the rope-bridges of the Himalayas or
the Andes, formed the first rude means of communication between man
and man." At the very least it may be gladly accepted provisionally as
a clue leading out of the labyrinth of philologic confusion.

For the purpose of the present paper there is, however, no need of an
absolute decision upon the priority between communication of ideas by
bodily motion and by vocal articulation. It is enough to admit that
the connection between them was so early and intimate that gestures,
in the wide sense indicated of presenting ideas under physical forms,
had a direct formative effect upon many words; that they exhibit the
earliest condition of the human mind; are traced from the remotest
antiquity among all peoples possessing records; are generally
prevalent in the savage stage of social evolution; survive agreeably
in the scenic pantomime, and still adhere to the ordinary speech of
civilized man by motions of the face, hands, head, and body, often
involuntary, often purposely in illustration or for emphasis.

It may be unnecessary to explain that none of the signs to be
described, even those of present world-wide prevalence, are presented
as precisely those of primitive man. Signs as well as words, animals,
and plants have had their growth, development, and change, their
births and deaths, and their struggle for existence with survival of
the fittest. It is, however, thought probable from reasons hereinafter
mentioned that their radicals can be ascertained with more precision
than those of words.

HISTORY OF GESTURE LANGUAGE.

There is ample evidence of record, besides that derived from other
sources, that the systematic use of gesture speech was of great
antiquity. Liv