Chap. II. MENTAL POWEES. 35 



organic being excepting man had possessed any mental 

 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 shewn that there is no fundamental 

 difference of this kind. We must also admit that 

 there is a much wider interval in mental power be- 

 tween 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 number- 

 less gradations. 



Nor is the difference slight in moral disposition 

 between a barbarian, such as the man described by the 

 old navigator Byron, who dashed his child on the rocks 

 for dropping 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 Shakspeare. 

 Differences of this kind between the highest men of the 

 highest races and the lowest savages, are connected by 

 the finest gradations. Therefore it is possible that they 

 might pass and be developed into each other. ■ 



My object in this chapter is solely to shew that there 

 is no fundamental difference between man and the 

 higher mammals in their mental faculties. Each divi- 

 sion 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 univer- 

 sally 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 

 have to give some additional facts under Sexual Selec- 

 tion, shewing that their mental powers are higher than 



d 2 



