6VMMAK7. 143 



Nevertheless the difference in ' mind between man and 

 the higher animals, groat as it is, certainly is one of degree 

 and not of kind. We have seen that the senses and in tui- 

 tions, the various emotions and faculties, such as love, 

 memory, attention, curiosity, imitation, reason, etc., of 

 which man boasts, may be found in an incipient, or even 

 sometimes in a well-developed condition, in the lower 

 animals. They are also capable of some inherited improve- 

 ment, as we see in the domestic dog compared with the 

 wolf or jackal. If it could be proved that certain high 

 mental powers, such as the formation of general con- 

 cepts, self-consciousness, etc., were absolutely peculiar to 

 man, which seems extremely doubtful, it is not improbable 

 that these qualities are merely the incidental results of 

 other highly-advanced intellectual faculties ; and these 

 again mainly the result of the continued use of a perfect 

 language. At what age does the new-born infant possess 

 the power of abstraction, or become self-conscious and 

 reflect on its own existence ? We cannot answer; nor can 

 we answer in regard to the ascending organic scale. The 

 half-art, half-instinct of language still bears the stamp 

 of its gradual evolution. The ennobling belief in God is 

 not universal with man; and the belief in spiritual agencies 

 naturally follows from other mental powers. The moral 

 sense perhaps affords the best and highest distinction 

 between man and the lower animals; but I need say noth- 

 ing on this head, as I have so lately endeavored to show 

 that the social instincts the prime principle of man's 

 moral constitution* with the aid of active intellectual 

 powers and the effects of habit, naturally lead to the golden 

 rule, Ci As ye would that ni3n should do to you, do ye to 

 them likewise;" and this lies at the foundation of morality. 



In the next chapter I shall make some few remarks on the 

 probable steps and means by which the several mental 

 and moral faculties of mai have been gradually evolved. 

 That such evolution is at least possible, ought not to be 

 denied, for we daily see these faculties developing in every 

 infant; and we may truce a pefect gradation from the mind 

 of an utter idiot, lower than that of an animal low in the 

 scale, to the mind of a Newton. 



*" The Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius," etc.. p. 139. 



