PRIMITIVE MAN. 898 



comes by repetition simple and instinctive. Does 

 the man then sink to the level of the hound_, or, what 

 is more to the purpose, does this in the least approach 

 to showing that the hound can rise to the level of the 

 man ? Certainly not ; for the man is the conscious 

 planner and originator of a course of action in which 

 the instincts of the brute are made to take part, and 

 in which the readiness that he attains by habit only 

 enables him to dispense with certain processes of 

 thought which were absolutely necessary at first. 

 The man and the beast co-operate, but they meet 

 each other from entirely different planes; the former 

 from that of the rational consideration of nature, the 

 latter from that of the blind pursuit of a mere physical 

 instinct. The one, to use Mr. Huxley's simile, is the 

 conscious inventor of the calculating machine, the 

 other is the machine itself, and, though the machine 

 can calculate, this fact is the farthest possible from 

 giving it the power of growing into or producing its 

 own inventor. But Moses, or the more ancient autho- 

 rity from whom he quotes in Genesis, knew this better 

 than either of these modern combatants. His special 

 distinctive mark of the superiority of man is that he 

 was to have dominion over the earth and its animal 

 inhabitants; and he represents this dominion as 

 inaugurated by man's examining and naming the 

 animals of Eden, and finding among them no " help 

 meet''' for him.* Man was to find in them helps, 

 but helps under his control, and that not the control 

 * Literally, " Corresponding," or " Similar," to him. 



