182 PERFECTIBILITY OF MAN. 



The conclusion we have reached, that the elevation 

 of the species must be derived chiefly from the higher 

 civilisations already partially attained, suggests at once 

 the question, how may the flow from this fountain be 

 itself rendered more abundant and pure ? How may 

 the import of the very word Civilisation be raised, by 

 its being associated in the future with higher faculties 

 of intellect and moral feeling ? 



The question, thus shaped, is one abounding in 

 curious speculation and of deep interest. Admitting 

 the capacity for higher development, which among the 

 faculties bestowed on man are most susceptible of such 

 elevation ? Here the answer may best be, those which 

 in degree, if not in kind, most markedly distinguish 

 him from the brute creation. The senses of sight, 

 hearing, and touch, which mainly connect man with the 

 external world, are severally possessed by many other 

 animals in greater perfection of natural sensibility, but 

 without the capacity for that augmentation of power 

 which human genius has given to these senses, and to 

 that of vision more especially. The outer form, and 

 those internal organs on which man's life depends, are 

 probably susceptible of little farther change, from those 

 incidents of soil, climate, food, and social condition, 

 which have created and defined the actual communities 

 of mankind. It is to the brain, as the instrumental 

 minister of mind, that we must look, if admitting a 

 material cause for the advancement of man in the scale 

 of being. A free admission of ignorance as to all 

 that concerns the proximate relations of matter and 

 mind exempts us from dealing here with this long-liti- 

 gated question. What physiology and comparative 



