26 THE ORIGIN OF HUMAN REASON. 



and then to commit regrettable indiscretions, we fre- 

 quently come upon statements as admirably expressed 

 as they are true. Thus in contrasting* the views of 

 those he regards as his leading opponents, he makes the 

 following excellent remarks concerning the relation 

 existing between religion and morality, and an intel- 

 lectual nature : " It is certain that neither of these 

 faculties could have occurred in that species [the 

 human], had it not also been gifted with a greatly 

 superior order of intelligence. For even the most 

 elementary forms of religion and morality, depend upon 

 ideas of a much more abstract, or intellectual, nature 

 than are to be met with in any brute. Obviously, 

 therefore, the first distinction that falls to be con- 

 sidered is the intellectual distinction." 



Rightly, therefore, does Mr. Romanes begin his 

 detailed discussion of the subject with a consideration 

 of mental processes, and his second chapter is accord- 

 ingly devoted to an exposition of his views concerning 

 " ideas." 



Before following our author upon his psychological 

 excursion, it may be well to set down certain general 

 considerations bearing upon the question of the exist- 

 ence and origin in man of a nature essentially distinct 

 from that of any other animal whatever. 



Now, such a distinct, absolute origin is of course 

 unimaginable ; but, then, every absolute origin is un- 

 imaginable, and yet both sensitivity and life must have 

 had a beginning. It is a first requisite in our scientific 

 inquiries to distinguish between the imagination and 



* p. i8. 



