S± THE DESCENT OF MAN. Part T. 



CHAPTEK II. 



Comparison of the Mental Powers of Man and the 



Lower Animals. 



The difference in mental power between the highest ape and the 

 lowest savage, immense — Certain instincts in common — The 

 emotions — Curiosity — Imitation — Attention — Memory — Ima- 

 gination — Reason — Progressive improvement — Tools and 

 weapons used by animals — Language — Self-consciousness — 

 Sense of beauty — Belief in God, spiritual agencies, superstitions. 



We have seen in the last chapter that man bears in his 

 bodily structure clear traces of his descent from some 

 lower form ; but it may be urged that, as man differs so 

 greatly in his mental power from all other animals, there 

 must be some error in this conclusion. No doubt the 

 difference in this respect is enormous, even if we com- 

 pare the mind of one of the lowest savages, who has no 

 words to express any number higher than four, and who 

 uses no abstract terms for the commonest objects or 

 affections, 1 with that of the most highly organised ape. 

 The difference would, no doubt, still remain immense, 

 even if one of the higher apes had been improved or 

 civilised as much as a dog has been in comparison with 

 its parent-form, the wolf or jackal. The Fuegians rank 

 amongst the lowest barbarians ; but I was continually 

 struck with surprise how closely the three natives on 

 board H.M.S. " Beagle," who had lived some years in 

 England and could talk a little English, resembled us 

 in disposition and in most of our mental faculties. If no 



1 See the evidence on these points, as given by Lubbock, ' Prehistoric 

 Times,' p. 354, &c. 



