The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-06-07
THE FUTURE OF SPEECH,
Julian Hawthorne Predicts a Time
When Language Will Not
Be Necessary.
New Novel Which Deals With the
Subject of Thought Trans
ference.
The Failure of Audible Speech-Men Are
Judged By What They Do
Not Say.
F:[written for The SUNDAY INDEPENDENT

II NTlLteu . HE DUNDA1 lSDEPENDENI L..
Whether it be our approaching quadri-
centennial of Columbus, or some cause even
broader and more profound that is prompt
ing us to speculate as to the possible devel-
opments and changes of the immediate
f~uture-certain it is that the air is full of
rumors and the heavens of portents. The
feeling seems to be that a & ispensation has
closed and that a new dispensation is about
to open. Politics, science, religion, soci-
ETY., have all, as 1t were, paused An instant
and drawn breath, previous to taking a
leap into the unknown. Is it the millen-
mum that is knocking at our door? | have
lately read a couple of vivid and impressive
little volumes by Professor Totten. of Yale.
which makes out a startlingly clear case in
favor of the theory that the end OF the
present century will see this end of a mum
Der of things which we have been won't to
consider everlasting. And the book-stands
are full of new romances, the scenes of
which are placed a hunore or more years
ahead of the present era, portraying social
and economical conditions of a more or less
extraordinary character.
But, after all. the interesting thing inthe
world is man. What changes ara going TO
take place in him? We will conclude th at
LIS ClICuusLduCth are DouIl y lIIptoFS
but will he himself expand and improve
correspondingly? Our own present CIR
cumstances, for pie, are certainly su-
periOr to those of the Eiizabethan era: and
yet none of our authors (save. perhaps,
in the secret conviction of his or her own
heart) Is equal or superior to
Shakespeare. OF course, we nav become
more moral, with the lapse of temptation
to immortality; but that is anegative virtue.
Are We to become III any respect different?
Are qualities or towers to be added to us
whereof We now know nothing.
This aspect of the matter has been but
little attended to. 1t ia not so easy to i'm
Rglne variations in humanity as IN things:
and vet the latter alone would be OF com
paritively small account. But the author
of a story now publishing has entered this
neglected field, and the idea he is develop
ing promises we'll. 1t seems To be en-
gagged with the question of the manner in
which the men of the future are TO conmu-
nicate with one smother. 1t is not uossi-
BILE, of course, to foretell at this stage, what
solution the author has in mind. But tine
casual critic may for that very reaaon tLt
more freely indulge his own conjectures.
And certainly, when one comes TO thinl
of it. audible speech seems Il somewha
clumsy device for making known one't
thoughts. 1t is laborious, redundant an,
artificial. There is no vital correspondence
between the enunciations of sueech ant
tue thoughts OF Ile LliHu. NO"tl tUuHC
may, indeed, be regarded in u measure a
spontaneous and n%atural; animals US
them and they express emotion. Properl
graduated. they are the substance O
vocal music, and they are doubtless capn
bic of indefinitely finer Gradations tina
we have AS yet found it worth Will
to give them. But the ~introductio
of c%onsonants renders speech, as suct
ipcorrigibly superficial and mechaui
cal. 1t is q violent and arbitrary e1pedi
ent, and opens the way to hypocrisy an
falsehood. For. words being definite an