486 MAN IN NATURE 



are beyond the reach of the anatomist's knife, and this is still 

 more markedly the case in man. Following in part the in- 

 genious analysis of Mivart, we may regard the psychical powers 

 of man as reflex, instinctive, emotional, and intellectual ; and 

 in each of these aspects we shall find points of resemblance to 

 other animals, and of divergence from them. In regard to re- 

 flex actions, or those which are merely automatic, inasmuch as 

 they are intended to provide for certain important functions 

 without thought or volition, their development is naturally in 

 the inverse ratio of psychical elevation, and man is conse- 

 quently, in this respect, in no way superior to lower animals. 

 The same may be said with reference to instinctive powers, 

 which provide often for complex actions in a spontaneous and 

 unreasoning manner. In these also man is rather deficient 

 than otherwise ; and since, from their nature, they limit their 

 possessors to narrow ranges of activity, and fix them within 

 a definite scope of experience and efficiency, they would be 

 incompatible with those higher and more versatile inventive 

 powers which man possesses. The comb-building instinct of 

 the bee, the nest-weaving instinct of the bird, are fixed and 

 invariable things, obviously incompatible with the varied con- 

 trivance of man ; and while instinct is perfect within its narrow 

 range, it cannot rise beyond this into the sphere of unlimited 

 thought and contrivance. Higher than mere instinct are the 

 powers of imagination, memory, and association, and here man 

 at once steps beyond his animal associates, and develops these 

 in such a variety of ways, that even the rudest tribes of men, 

 who often appear to trust more to these endowments than to 

 higher powers, rise into a plane immeasurably above that of 

 the highest and most intelligent brutes, and toward which they 

 are unable, except to a very limited degree, to raise those of 

 the more domesticable animals which they endeavour to train 

 into companionship with themselves. It is, however, in these 

 domesticated animals that we find the highest degree of approx- 



