84 THE DESCENT OF MAN. [Part L 



tives on board H. M. S. " Beagle," who had lived some 

 years in England, and could talk a little English, resem- 

 bled us in disposition, and in most of our mental faculties. 

 If no organic being excepting man had possessed any men- 

 tal power, or if his powers had been of a wholly different 

 nature from those of the lower animals, then we should 

 never have been able to convince ourselves that our high 

 faculties had been gradually developed. But it can be 

 clearly shown that there is no fundamental difference of 

 this kind. We must also admit that there is a much 

 wider interval in mental power between one of the lowest 

 fishes, as a lamprey or lancelet, and one of the higher apes, 

 than between an ape and man ; yet this immense interval 

 is filled up by numberless gradations. 



Nor is the difference slight in moral disposition between 

 a barbarian, such as the man described by the old navi- 

 gator Byron, who dashed his child on the rocks for drop- 

 ping a basket of sea-urchins, and a Howard or Clarkson ; 

 and in intellect, between a savage who does not use any 

 abstract terms, and a Newton or Shakespeare. Differences 

 of this kind between the highest men of the highest races 

 and the lowest savages, are connected by the finest grada- 

 tions. Therefore it is possible that they might pass and 

 be developed into each other. 



My object in this chapter is solely to show that there 

 is no fundamental difference between man and the higher 

 mammals in their mental faculties. Each division of the 

 subject might have been extended into a separate essay, 

 but must here be treated briefly. As no classification of 

 the mental powers has been universally accepted, I shall 

 arrange my remarks in the order most convenient for my 

 purpose, and will select those facts which have most struck 

 me, with the hope that they may produce some effect on 

 the reader. 



With respect to animals very low in the scale, I shall 



