Chap. II. MENTAL POWERS. 49 



wonder and curiosity ; they possess the same faculties 

 of imitation, attention, memory, imagination, and reason, 

 though in very different degrees. Nevertheless many 

 authors have insisted that man is separated through his 

 mental faculties by an impassable barrier from all the 

 lower animals. I formerly made a collection of above 

 a score of such aphorisms, but they are not worth 

 giving, as their wide difference and number prove the 

 difficulty, if not the impossibility, of the attempt. It 

 has been asserted that man alone is capable of progres- 

 sive improvement ; that he alone makes use of tools or 

 fire, domesticates other animals, possesses property, or 

 employs language ; that no other animal is self-con- 

 scious, comprehends itself, has the power of abstraction, 

 or possesses general ideas ; that man alone has a sense 

 of beauty, is liable to caprice, has the feeling of grati- 

 tude, mystery, &c. ; believes in God, or is endowed with 

 a conscience. I will hazard a few remarks on the more 

 important and interesting of these points. 



Archbishop Sumner formerly maintained 18 that man 

 alone is capable of progressive improvement. With 

 animals, looking first to the individual, every one who 

 has had any experience in setting traps knows that 

 young animals can be caught much more easily than 

 old ones ; and they can be much more easily approached 

 by an enemy. Even with respect to old animals, it is 

 impossible to catch many in the same place and in the 

 same kind of trap, or to destroy them by the same kind 

 of poison ; yet it is improbable that all should have 

 partaken of the poison, and impossible that all should 

 have been caught in the trap. They must learn caution 

 by seeing their brethren caught or poisoned. In North 

 America, where the fur-bearing animals have long been 



18 Quoted by Sir C. Lyell, 'Antiquity of Man,' p. 497. 

 VOL. I. E 



