Chap. II.] MENTAL POWERS. 47 



bird first and then returned for the dead one, as in the 

 case of the two wild-ducks. 



The muleteers in South- America say, " I will not give 

 you the mule whose step is easiest, but la mas racional, 

 — the one that reasons best ; " and Humboldt " adds, 

 "this popular expression, dictated by long experience, 

 combats the system of animated machines, better perhaps 

 than all the arguments of speculative philosophy." 



It has, I think, now been shown that man and the 

 higher animals, especially the Primates, have some few 

 instincts in common. All have the same senses, intuitions, 

 and sensations — similar passions, affections, and emotions, 

 even the more complex ones ; they feel wonder and curi- 

 osity ; they possess the same faculties of imitation, atten- 

 tion, memory, imagination, and reason, though in very 

 different degrees. Nevertheless many authors have in^ 

 sisted that man is separated through his mental faculties 

 by an impassable barrier from all the lower animals. I 

 formerly made a collection of above a score of such apho- 

 risms, but they are not worth giving, as their wide differ- 

 ence and number prove the difficulty, if not the impossi- 

 bility, of the attempt. It has been asserted that man 

 alone is capable, of progressive improvement ; that he 

 alone makes use of tools or fire, domesticates other ani- 

 mals, possesses property, or employs language ; that no 

 other animal is self-conscious, comprehends itself, has the 

 power of abstraction, or possesses general ideas ; that 

 man alone has a sense of beauty, is liable to caprice, has 

 the feeling of gratitude, mystery, etc. ; believes in God, or 

 is endowed with a conscience. I will hazard a few remarks 

 on the more important and interesting of these points. 



Archbishop Sumner formerly maintained '^ that man 



" 'Personal Narrative,' Eng. translat., vol. iii. p. 106. 

 >8 Quoted by Sir C. Lyell, ' Antiquity of Man,' p. 49'7. 



