here has ever been a time in the history of his
organism when he acquired his being from some progenitor which was not
man, he acquired at the same time the faculty of speech, and that
progenitor did not impart a thing which he did not have. While it is
true that speech, as I have used it, is confined to vocal sounds, other
modes of expression have preceded it, and such has been a common faculty
inherent through all forms and planes of life. I am aware that two
ingredients combined may make a compound unlike either one, and such may
be the case with speech, but the elements which constitute the compound
must have been for ever present.

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE SPEECH AND REASON OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS.

Dash and the Baby--Two Collies talk--Eunice understands her
Mistress--Two Dogs and the Phonograph--A Canine Family--Cats and
Dogs--Insects--Signs and Sounds.

[Sidenote: THE SPEECH OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS]

To those who are familiar with rural life, there can be nothing strange
in hearing it said that all animals can talk among their kind. Among the
daily incidents of farm life, there occur so many proofs of this as to
place the question beyond debate. The cattle have means of conveying
ideas to other cattle, and sheep and hogs understand other sheep and
hogs, and the means employed are sounds. These sounds are used in the
same way that man uses them to convey his thoughts, and since they
discharge all the functions of speech, in what respect are they not
speech? The types of speech differ in different genera, as their
physical types do, but they are not any the less speech on that account.
Among the domestic animals, I think the dog has, perhaps, the highest
type of speech; and this is doubtless, in some measure, due to his
intimate relations with man, from whom he has learned and added a little
to his mental store, and this must find an outlet through speech. That
dogs think and reason is not to be doubted by the most stupid observer,
and they often make known their thoughts so that even man can interpret
them with certainty; but the speech by which they express those thoughts
is of course rudimentary. Dogs often discharge certain duties with such
promptness that bigots declare that it is mechanical and done without
motive, but there are many thousands of cases where the dog has assumed
and performed duties of others, entirely outside of his own sphere,
which nothing but reason could have prompted.

When