DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF MAN. 55 



to varieties in external condition, which renders him to a great extent inde- 

 pendent of them. He is capable of sustaining the highest as well as the 

 lowest extremes of temperature and of atmospheric pressure. In the former 

 of these particulars, he is strikingly contrasted with the anthropoid Apes; 

 the Gorilla and Chimpanzee being restricted to the hottest parts of Africa, 

 and the Orang-outang to the tropical portions of the Indian Archipelago; 

 and neither of these animals being capable of living in temperate climates 

 without the assistance of artificial heat, even with the aid of which they 

 have not hitherto long survived their second dentition. So, again, although 

 man's diet seems naturally of a mixed character, he can support himself in 

 health and strength either on an exclusively vegetable diet or on an almost 

 exclusively animal regimen. 



38. The slow growth of Man, and the length of time during which he 

 remains in a state of dependence, are peculiarities that remarkably distin- 

 guish him from all other animals. He is unable to obtain his own food 

 during at least the first three years of his life ; and he does not attain to his 

 full bodily stature and mental capacity until he is more than twenty years 

 of age. This retardation of the developmental process seems to have refer- 

 ence to the high grade which it is ultimately to attain ; for everywhere, 

 throughout the Organized Creation, do \ve observe that the most elevated 

 forms are those which go through the longest preparatory stages, and of 

 which the evolution is most dependent upon the assistance afforded by the 

 parental organism during its earlier periods. The peculiar prolongation of 

 this state of dependence in the Human species, has a most important and 

 evident effect upon the social condition of the race ; being, in fact, the chief 

 source of family ties, and affording the opportunity for those processes of 

 education, direct and indirect, which transmit to the rising generation the 

 influence of the intellectual culture and moral training of the past. 



39. Still, however widely man may be distinguished from other animals 

 by these and other particulars of his structure and economy, he is yet more 

 distinguished by those mental endowments, and by the habitudes of life and 

 action thence resulting, which must be regarded as the essential character- 

 istics of Humanity. It is in adapting himself to the conditions of his exist- 

 ence, in providing himself with food, shelter, weapons of attack and defence, 

 etc., that Man's intellectual powers are first called into active operation ; 

 but when thus aroused, their development has no assignable limit. The 

 Will, guided by the intelligence, and acted on by the desires and emotions, 

 takes the place in Man of the instinctive propensities which are usually the 

 immediate springs of action in the lower animals; for although, among the 

 most elevated of these, a high amount of Intelligence is exhibited, yet its 

 operations seem to be always directly attributable to external suggestions, 

 present or remembered ; and the character never rises beyond that of the 

 child. In fact, the correspondence between the psychical endowments of the 

 Chimpanzee, and those of a Child of three years old who has not yet began 

 to speak, is very close. One of the most important aids in the use and de- 

 velopment of the human mind, is the capacity for articulate speech; of which, 

 so far as we know, man is the only animal in possession. There is no doubt 

 that many other species have certain powers of communication between in- 

 dividuals ; but these are probably very limited, and of a kind more allied to 

 "the language of signs" than to a proper verbal language. In fact, it is 

 obvious that the use of a language composed of a certain number of distinct 

 sounds, combined into words in a multitude of different modes, requires a 

 power of intellectual abstraction and generalization, in which it appears 

 that the lower animals are altogether deficient. So, again, verbal language 

 affords the only means whereby abstract ideas can be communicated ; and 



