Chapter VI: Man and the Animals

Extract

Every animal has its sphere to which it belongs by birth, into which it instantly enters, in which it continues all through life, and in which it dies. … The spider weaves with as much skill as did Minerva, but all its skill is restricted to this narrow sphere; this is its universe. How marvellous is the insect and how narrow the sphere of its activity.—HERDER, Origin of Language, 1772.

In the preceding pages we have given a descriptive outline of the Space-Time picture of the life and mind of the world as it has emerged by successive steps towards freedom and individuality, up to and including animal life and intelligence. But there is as yet no language; and, from all that we can discover, no power nor problem in the animal nature which would bring language into existence. There seems to be some barrier that holds the animal’s mind back from that realm of free mind into which man has entered, where language first emerges. What is the barrier? Can it be intellectually grasped and described? These are the two questions.