MAN AND BRUTE. 3 



rooted prejudices regarding his own position in nature, and 

 his relations to the wider world of life ; while that which 

 remains a dim suspicion for the unthinking, becomes a vast 

 argument, fraught with the deepest consequences, for all 

 who are acquainted with the recent progress of anatomical 

 and physiological sciences." * 



The problem, then, which in this generation has for the first 

 time been presented to human thought, is the problem of how 

 this thought itself has come to be. A question of the deepest 

 importance to every system of philosophy has been raised by 

 the study of biology ; and it is the question whether the mind 

 of^:man is essentially the same as the mind of the lower 

 animals, or, having had, either wholly or in part, some other 

 mode of origin, is essentially distinct — differing not only in 

 degree but in kind from all other types of psychical being. 

 An^d forasmuch as upon his great and deeply interesting 

 question opinions are still much divided — even among those 

 most eminent in the walks of science who agree in accepting 

 the principles of evolution as applied to explain the mental 

 constitution of the lower animals, — it is evident that the 

 question is neither a superficial nor an easy one. I shall 

 however, endeavour to examine it with as little obscurity as 

 possible, and also, I need hardly say, with all the impartiality 

 of which I am capable, t 



It will be remembered that in the introductory chapter of 

 my previous work I have already briefly sketched the manner 

 in which I propose to treat this question. Here, therefore, it 

 is sufficient to remark that I began by assuming the truth of 

 the general theory of descent so far as the animal kingdom 



• Mali's Place in Nature^ p. 59. 



t It is perhaps desirable to explain from the first that by the words '* difference 

 of kind," as used in the above paragraph and elsewhere throughout this treatise, 

 I mean difference of origin. This is the only real distinction that can be drawn 

 between the terms '* difference of kind " and " difference of degree ; " and I should 

 scarcely have deemed it worth while to give the definition, had it not been for the 

 confused manner in which the terms are used by some writers — e.g. Professor 

 Sayce, who says, while speaking of the development of languages from a common 

 source, " differences of degree become in time differences of kind " {Introdtiction 

 to the Science of Lafigtiage, ii. 309). 



