220 LESSONS FKOM NATUEE. [CnAr. VII. 



many under the notion of cause and effect, is a perfect 

 impossibility to them. He distinctly says that : 



&quot; The cause of this difference between man and beasts does not lie in 

 the comparative lucidity or obscurity of the impressions made on their 

 minds respectively ; for in this respect there is assuredly no superiority 

 in the human mind. I am, therefore, of opinion that the human mind 

 also would never derive from the mere experience afforded by the 

 senses, and from habit, the general abstract idea of causality, unless it 

 had a certain power of abstraction a power, namely, of forming a 

 mental something out of the returning combinations of two things of 

 which one requires the succession of the other.&quot; (See Miiller s Phy 

 siology. Translated by Dr. Baly, 1842, vol. ii. p. 1347.) 



He adds that although dogs will become accustomed to 

 perceive that hats and caps of various forms are put on the 

 head, to recognise their master whether naked or clothed, 

 and sticks of different shapes, yet the notions of identity 

 and constancy, as opposed to difference and variability, are 

 beyond the limits of their psychical powers. 



It is undeniable, then, that Instinct, as made known to us 

 Man slower in and by animals, is something very different 



psychical . J 



Acuities, from Keason in its developed condition. Such being 

 the broad distinction between the highest psychical faculties 

 of men and brutes, we may proceed to consider whether any 

 of the lower faculties of the former can throw any light upon 

 such highest faculties of the latter. In considering our 

 highest mental powers, we have already seen that besides 

 deliberate thought, inference, voluntary attention, active 

 memory, will, moral judgment, and speech, we have direct per 

 ception, association, automatic attention, involuntary memory, 

 indeliberate volition, sympathetic emotion, and emotional 

 expression. It may be well here to look a little further at 

 these and some cognate matters, though space will only 

 permit us to do so in a very cursory manner. 



In a healthy condition, digestion, assimilation, and growth 

 are all performed by us in utter unconsciousness, as are the 

 essential and intimate processes of respiration and reproduc 

 tion ; and all these are faculties shared by us, not only with 

 every animal, but with every plant. Another faculty is 



