Joap. II. 1 MENTAL TOWERS. £3 



CHAPTER 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. — Imagination. — Eeason. 

 — 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 compare 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-organized ape. The difference would, 

 no doubt, still remain immense, even if one of the higher 

 apes had been improved or civilized as much as a dog has 

 been in comparison with its parent-form, the wolf or jackal. 

 The Fuegians rank among the lowest barbarians ; but I was 

 continually struck with surprise how closely the three na- 



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

 Times,' p. 354, etc. 



