MENTAL POWERS, 93 



important distinction; but there appears to me much truth 

 in Sir J. Lubbock's suggestion,* that when primeval man 

 first used flint-stones for any purpose, he would have acci- 

 dentally splintered them, and would then have used the 

 sharp fragments. From this step it would be a small one 

 to break the flints on purpose, and not a very wide step to 

 fashion them rudely. This latter advance, however, may 

 have taken long ages, if we may judge by the immense in- 

 terval of time which elapsed before the men of the neolithic 

 period took to grinding and polishing their stone tools. In 

 breaking the flints, as Sir J. Lubbock likewise remarks,, 

 sparks would have been emitted, and in grinding them heat 

 w^ould have been evolved; thus the two usual methods of 

 " obtaining fire may have originated." The nature of fire, 

 would have been known in the many volcanic regions where 

 lava occasionally flows through forests. The anthropomor- 

 phous apes, guided probably by instinct, build for them- 

 selves temporary platforms; but as many instincts are largely 

 controlled by reason, the simpler ones, such as this of build- 

 ing a platform, might readily pass into a voluntary and 

 conscious act. The orang is known to cover itself at night 

 with the leaves of the Pandanus; and Brehm states that 

 one of his baboons used to protect itself from the heat of the 

 sun by throwing a straw-mat over its head. In these sev- 

 eral habits, we probably see the first steps toward some of 

 the simpler arts, such as rude architecture and dress, as 

 they arose among the early progenitors of man. 



Abstraction, General Conceptions, Self -consciousness, i 

 Mental Individuality. It would be very difficult for anyj 

 one with even much more knowledge than I possess to de- 

 termine how far animals exhibit any traces of these high 

 mental powers. This difficulty arises from the impossibility 

 of judging what passes through the mind of an animal; 

 and again, the fact that writers differ to a great extent in 

 the meaning which they attribute to the above terms, 

 cauBes a further difficulty. If one may judge from 

 various articles which have been published lately, the great- 

 est stress seems to be laid on the supposed entire absence 

 in animals of the power of abstraction, or of forming general 

 concepts. But when a dog sees another dog at a distance, 



* " Prehistoric Times," 1865, p. 473, etc. 



