296 THE DOCTRINE OF DESCENT. 



certainly rescuing the other side of the dualism. But 

 here, too, we will not be defrauded of our say and our 

 own opinion. The mental powers of man, in their origin, 

 growth, and effects, are likewise susceptible of investiga- 

 tion, and psychology only too long thought it possible 

 to elude physiology. Let us, therefore, proceed in good 

 heart to a short examination. 



It is universally admitted that a certain relationship, 

 or analogy, exists in the psychical capacity of the higher 

 animals and man. Reason alone, it is said, the essence 

 of psychical agencies by which man attains self-con- 

 sciousness, and rises to abstract conceptions, combines 

 ideas, especially religious ideas, and lives in art and 

 science, this the animal does not possess. We reply 

 that animals certainly do not possess this degree of 

 mental development, but neither does man possess it 

 in lower phases of evolution. 



The soul of the new-born infant is, in its manifestations, 

 in no way different from that of the young animal ; 

 these manifestations are the functions of the infantine 

 nervous system; with this they grow and are developed 

 together with speech. The grade to which this de- 

 velopment rises is generally dependent on the preceding 

 generations. The psychical capacities of each indi- 

 vidual bear the family type, and are determined by 

 the laws of heredity. For it is simply untrue that, 

 independently of colour and descent, each man, under 

 conditions otherwise alike, may attain a like pitch of 

 mental development. As a proof of this primary 

 equality of mankind, single instances of gifted 

 negroes and Indians are held up to us. But these 

 have behind them unnumbered generations practised 



