58 The Descent of Man. 



inasmucli as lie says a difFerence in degree does not so 

 justify; and we have no hesitation in affirming (with Mr. 

 Darwin) that between the instinctive powers of the coccus 

 and the ant, there is but a difference of degree, and that, 

 therefore, they do belong to the same kingdom; but we 

 contend it is quite otherwise with man. Mr. Darwin doubt- 

 less admits that all the wonderful actions of ants are mere 

 modifications of instinct. But if it Avere not so — if the pierc- 

 ing of tunnels beneath rivers, etc., were evidence of their 

 possession of reason, then, far from agreeing with Mr. Darwin, 

 we should say that ants also are rational animals, and that, 

 while considered from the anatomical standpoint they would 

 be insects, from that of their rationality they would rank 

 together with man in a kingdom apart of ' rational animals.' 

 Really, however, there is no tittle of evidence that ants 

 possess the reflective, self-conscious, deliberate faculty ; while 

 the perfection of their instincts is a most powerful argument 

 against the need of attributing a rudiment of rationality to 

 any brute whatever. 



We seem, then, to have Mr. Darwin on our side when 

 Ave affirm that animals possessed of mental faculties distinct 

 in kind, should be placed in a kingdom apart. And man 

 possesses such a distinction. 



Is this, hoAvever, all that can be said for the dignity of 

 his position ? Is he merely one division of the Adsible uni- 

 verse co-ordinate Avith the animal, vegetable, and mineral 

 kingdoms ? 



It Avould be so if he were intelligent and no more. If he 

 could observe the facts of his oAvn existence, investigate the 

 co-existences and successions of phenomena, but all the time 

 remain, like the other parts of the visible universe, a mere 

 floating unit in the stream of time, incapable of one act of 

 free self-determination or one voluntary moral aspiration 

 after an ideal of absolute goodness. This, hoAvever, is far 



