Chap. II.] MENTAL POWERS. 47 



bird first and then returned for the dead one, as in the 

 case of the two wild-ducks. 



The muleteers in South America say, " I will not give 

 you the mule whose step is easiest, but la mas rational, 

 — the one that reasons best ; " and Humboldt 17 adds, 

 "this popular expression, dictated by long experience, 

 combats the system of animated machines, better perhaps 

 than all the arguments of speculative philosophy." 



It has, I think, now been shown that man and the 

 higher animals, especially the Primates, have some few 

 instincts in common. All have the same senses, intuitions, 

 and sensations — similar passions, affections, and emotions, 

 even the more complex ones ; they feel wonder and curi- 

 osity ; they possess the same faculties of imitation, atten- 

 tion, memory, imagination, and reason, though in very 

 different degrees. Nevertheless many authors have in- 

 sisted 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 apho- 

 risms, but they are not worth giving, as their wide differ- 

 ence and number prove the difficulty, if not the impossi- 

 bility, of the attempt. It has been asserted that man 

 alone is capable of progressive improvement ; that he 

 alone makes use of tools or fire, domesticates other ani- 

 mals, possesses property, or employs language ; that no 

 other animal is self-conscious, comprehends itself, has the 

 power of abstraction, or possesses general ideas ; that 

 man alone has a sense of beauty, is liable to caprice, has 

 tlic feeling of gratitude, mystery, etc. ; believes in God, oi- 

 ls 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 



17 'Personal Narrative,' Eng. translat., vol. iii. p. 106. 



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



