36 THE DESCENT OF MAN. Part I. 



might have been expected. The variability of the facul- 

 ties in the individuals of the same species is an im- 

 portant point for us, and some few illustrations will here 

 be given. But it would be superfluous to enter into 

 many details on this head, for I have found on frequent 

 enquiry, that it is the unanimous opinion of all those 

 who have long attended to animals of many kinds, 

 including birds, that the individuals differ greatly in 

 everv mental characteristic. In what manner the mental 



at 



pow r ers were first developed in the lowest organisms, 

 is as hopeless an enquiry as how life first originated. 

 These are problems for the distant future, if they are 

 ever to be solved bv man. 



As man possesses the same senses with the lower 

 animals, his fundamental intuitions must be the same. 

 Man has also some few instincts in common, as that of 

 self-preservation, sexual love, the love of the mother for 

 her new-born offspring, the power possessed by the 

 latter of sucking, and so forth. But man, perhaps, has 

 somewhat fewer instincts than those possessed by the 

 animals which come next to him in the series. The 

 orang in the Eastern islands, and the chimpanzee in 

 Africa, build platforms on which they sleep ; and, as both 

 species follow the same habit, it might be argued that 

 this was due to instinct, but we cannot feel sure that it is 

 not the result of both animals having similar wants and 

 possessing similar powers of reasoning. These apes, as 

 we may assume, avoid the many poisonous fruits of the 

 tropics, and man has no such knowledge ; but as our 

 domestic animals, when taken to foreign lands and when 

 first turned out in the spring, often eat poisonous herbs, 

 which they afterwards avoid, we cannot feel sure that 

 the apes do not learn from their own experience or 

 from that of their parents what fruits to select. It is 

 however certain, as we shall presently see, that apes have 



