The Descent of Man 33 



the existence of right and wrong. On the other hand, no 

 brute has the faculty of articulate, rational speech: most 

 persons will also admit that brutes are not capable of truly 

 concerted action, and w^e contend most confidently that they 

 have no self-consciousness, properly so called, and no percep- 

 tion of the difference between truth and falsehood and right 

 and wrong. 



Let us now consider Mr. Darwin's facts in favour of an 

 opposite conclusion. 



First, his testimony drawn from his OAvn experience and 

 information regarding the lowest races of men. 



Secondly, the anecdotes he narrates in favour of the intel- 

 hgence of brutes. 



In the first place, we have to thank our author for very 

 distinct and unqualified statements as to the substantial 

 unity of men's mental powers. Thus he tells us : — 



' The Fuegians rank amongst the lowest barbarians ; but I was 

 continually struck with surprise how closely the three natives on 

 board H.M.S. "Beagle," who had lived some years in England, and 

 could talk a little English, resembled us in disposition, and in most of 

 our mental qualities.' — Vol. i. p. 34. 



Again he adds : — 



* The American aborigines, Negroes, and Europeans differ as much 

 from each other in mind as any three races that can be named ; yet I 

 was incessantly struck, whilst living with the Fuegians on board the 

 " Beagle," with the many little traits of character, showing how similar 

 their minds were to ours ; and so it was with a full-blooded negro 

 with whom I happened once to be intimate.' — Vol. i. p. 232. 



Again: — 'Differences of this kind (mental) between the 

 highest men of the highest races and the lowest savages are 

 connected by the finest gradations ' (vol. i. p. 35). 



Mr. Darwin, then, plainly tells us that all the essential 

 mental characters of civilised man are found in the very 

 lowest races of men, though in a less completely developed 

 state ; while, in comparing their mental powers with those of 



VOL. II. c 



