56 DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF MAN. 



those who have perused the interesting narrative given by Dr. Howe of his 

 successful training of Laura Bridgeraan, will remember how marked was 

 the improvement in her mental condition, from the time when she first 

 apprehended the fact that she could give such distinct expression to her 

 thoughts, feelings, and desires, as should secure their being comprehended 

 by others. 



40. The capacity for intellectual progress is a most remarkable peculiarity 

 of Man's psychical nature. The instinctive habits of the lower Animals are 

 limited, are peculiar to each species, and have immediate reference to their 

 bodily wants. Where a particular adaptation of means to ends, of actions 

 to circumstances, is made by an individual, the rest do not seem to profit by 

 that experience ; so that, although the instincts of particular animals may 

 be modified by the training of Man, or by the education of circumstances, 

 so as to show themselves after a few generations under new forms, no eleva- 

 tion of intelligence appears ever to take place spontaneously, no psychical 

 improvement is manifested in the species at large. In Man, on the other 

 hand, we observe not merely the capability of profiting by experience, but 

 the determination to do so; which he is enabled to put into action by the 

 power which his Will (when properly disciplined) comes to possess, of di- 

 recting and controlling his current of thought, by fixing his attention upon 

 any subject which he desires to keep before his mental vision. This power, 

 so far as we know, is peculiar to Man, and the presence or absence of it con- 

 stitute the difference between a being possessed of power to determine his 

 own course of thought and action, and a mere thinking automaton. 



41. Man's capacity for progress is connected with another element in his 

 nature, which it is difficult to isolate and define, but which interpenetrates 

 and blends with his whole psychical character. " The Soul," it has been 

 remarked, " is that side of our nature which is in relation with the Infinite ;" 

 and it is the existence of this relation, in whatever way we may describe it, 

 which seems to constitute one of the most distinctive peculiarities of Man. 

 It is in the desire for an improvement in his condition, occasioned by an 

 aspiration after something nobler and purer, that the main-spring of human 

 progress may be said to lie ; among the lowest races of mankind, the capacity 

 exists, but the desire seems dormant. When once thoroughly awakened, 

 however, it seems to "grow by what it feeds on ;" and the advance once 

 commenced, little external stimulus is needed ; for the desire increases at 

 least as fast as the capacity. In the higher grades of mental development, 

 there is a continual looking upwards, not (as in the lower) towards a more 

 elevated Human standard, but at once to something beyond and above Man 

 and Material Nature. This seems the chief source of the tendency to be- 

 lieve in some unseen existence ; which may take various forms, but which 

 seems never entirely absent from any race or nation, although, like other 

 innate tendencies, it may be deficient in individuals. Attempts have been 

 made by some travellers to prove that particular nations are destitute of it; 

 but such assertions have been based only upon a limited acquaintance with 

 their habits of thought, and with their outward observances; for there are 

 probably none who do not possess the idea of some invisible Power, external 

 to themselves, whose favor they seek, and whose anger they deprecate, by 

 sacrifice and other ceremonials. It requires a higher mental cultivation 

 than is commonly met with to conceive of this power as having a spiritual 

 existence; but wherever the idea of Spirituality can be defined, this seems 

 connected with it. The vulgar readiness to believe in ghosts, demons, etc., 

 and the vagaries of the so-called "Spiritualists" of recent times, are only 

 irregular, or depraved manifestations of the same tendency. Closely con- 

 nected with it is the desire to participate in this spiritual existence, of which 



