1 62 Human Mind Evolved. 



relate of this superiority of intellectual power. 

 We have now to follow this process of affiliating 

 human reason and conscience upon animal intel 

 ligence and instinct. 



On the origin of intelligence in our world 

 Darwin disclaims the knowledge which some 

 other evolutionary thinkers profess. In what 

 manner the mental powers were first developed 

 in the lower organisms he holds &quot; as hopeless an 

 inquiry as how life itself first originated.&quot; He 

 accepts the facts as he finds them, without pro 

 fessing to explain them. Animals are alive and 

 intelligent ; the law of the evolution of life is 

 known ; what if the development of intelligence 

 were subject to the same law ? If man, physically 

 considered, is just a highly developed animal, is 

 he more on his mental side? Is not his intel 

 lect, like his physical organism, the product of 

 natural selection ? It must certainly be admitted 

 that, wide as the interval confessedly is between 

 the mental powers of the lowest man and the 

 highest ape, it is not so wide as the interval be 

 tween the highest ape and a fish like the lamprey 

 or lancelet ; and if this latter interval is filled by 

 numberless gradations now in existence, it is not 

 impossible that the blank between the human 

 and the simian mind may once have been covered 



