106 THE DESCENT OF MAN. Part I. 



conscious and reflect on its own existence ? We cannot 

 answer ; nor can we answer in regard to the ascending 

 organic scale. The half-art and half-instinct of lan- 

 guage still bears the stamp of its gradual evolution. 

 The ennobling belief in God is not universal with man ; 

 and the belief in active spiritual agencies naturally fol- 

 lows from his other mental powers. The moral sense 

 perhaps affords the best and highest distinction between 

 man and the lower animals ; but I need not say any- 

 thing on this head, as I have so lately endeavoured 

 to shew that the social instincts, — the prime principle 

 of man's moral constitution 39 — with the aid of active 

 intellectual powers and the effects of habit, naturally 

 lead to the golden rule, " As ye would that men should 

 " do to you, do ye to them likewise ; " and this lies at 

 the foundation of morality. 



In a future chapter I shall make some few remarks 

 on the probable steps and means by which the several 

 mental and moral faculties of man have been gradually 

 evolved. That this at least is possible ought not 

 to be denied, when we daily see their development in 

 every infant ; and when we may trace a perfect grada- 

 tion from the mind of an utter idiot, lower than that of 

 the lowest animal, to the mind of a Newton. 



39 < The Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius,' &c, p. 139. 



