74 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



it can be shown that there is no fundamental difference of 

 this kind. We must also admit that there is a much wider 

 interval in mental power between one of the lowest fishes, 

 as a lamprey or lancelet, and one of the higher apes, than 

 between an ape and man; yet this interval is filled up by 

 numberless gradations. 



Nor is the difference slight in moral disposition between 

 a barbarian, such as the man described by the old navi- 

 gator Byron, who dashed his child on the rocks for drop- 

 ping a basket of sea-urchins, and a Howard or Clarkson; 

 and in intellect, between a savage who uses hardly any ab- 

 stract terms, and a Newton or Shakespeare. Differences 

 of this kind between the highest men of the highest races 

 and the lowest savages are connected by the finest grada- 

 tions. Therefore it is possible that they might pass and be 

 developed into each other. 



My object in this chapter is to show that there is no fun- 

 damental difference between man and the higher mammals 

 in their mental faculties. Each division of the subject 

 might have been extended into a separate essay, but must 

 here be treated briefly. As no classification of the mental 

 powers has been universally accepted, I shall arrange my 

 remarks in the order most convenient for my purpose; and 

 will select those facts which have struck me most, with the 

 hope that they may produce some effect on the reader. 



With respect to animals very low in the scale, I shall give 

 some additional facts under Sexual Selection, showing that 

 their mental powers are much higher than might have been 

 expected. The variability of the faculties in the individ- 

 uals of the same species is an important 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 inquiry 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 every mental characteristic. In what manner 

 the mental powers were first developed in the lowest organ- 

 isms, is as hopeless an inquiry as how life itself first origi- 

 nated. These are problems for the distant future if they are 

 ever to be solved by man. 



As man possesses the same senses as the lower animals, 

 his fundamental intuitions must be the same. Man has 

 also some few instincts in common, as that of self-preserva- 



