220 EVOLUTION AND MAN S PLACE IN NATURE 



faculties. Of the action of these, the best achievements 

 of animals give no evidence. The outstanding features 

 of this rational life, spring out of the power to reason 

 from general principles towards a system atised view 

 of existence. Testimony for the efficiency of this 

 power appears in all directions. It is seen first in 

 mechanical appliances, next in science, afterwards 

 in unceasing efforts to construct a philosophy of 

 existence, as a whole. 



In tracing the lines of advance, as these are fixed 

 by distinct phases of life in Nature, it has become 

 apparent that there is need for large modification in 

 our forms of discussion and in our use of terms. The 

 most essential changes required are, Avithdrawal of 

 references to mind from our descriptions of the func 

 tions of instinct ; a more exact discrimination of the 

 higher mammals from subordinate forms of life ; and 

 a more clearly defined boundary line between mind 

 in the higher animals, and the rational power distinc 

 tive of man. 



When we concentrate on the relations of the 

 higher mammals to man, it will specially appear that 

 more careful account needs to be made of the differ 

 ence between two modes of recognising mental phe 

 nomena, the one direct, as in our own experience, the 

 other indirect, as in observation of the actions of ani 

 mals. There lies here a wide contrast. This marks a 

 difference in the exactness, and even in the certainty, 

 of our knowledge of the intelligence of the higher 

 mammals. The directness of our knowledge in con 

 sciousness gives certainty, whereas any such exactness 

 of statement is impossible, even from our most careful 

 observations of animal life. The contrast between 



