4 SOCIAL HEREDITY AND SOCIAL EVOLUTION 



a monkey using a hook on the end of a stick to pull 

 a desired banana within his reach. 



Fundamental Differences Between Man and Animals. — 

 Actual differences of a fundamental character be- 

 tween man and animals are not easy to find, but after 

 extended analysis the fundamental differences ap- 

 pear to be two : 1. Man alone possesses the power of 

 forming concepts and using words. 2. Man alone 

 possesses a moral sense, or conscience. Other sec- 

 ondary and subordinate differences may surely be 

 found, but these are radical. No animal forms con- 

 cepts and gives them names, and none has a moral 

 sense. 



Even along these lines some thinkers are telling 

 us that this seeming gap between man and animals 

 may be at least partially bridged. Animals certainly 

 have perceptions — a first step in mental activity. 

 Some animals too have a sort of practical, though 

 vague, classification of perceptions ; as, for example, 

 when a dog smells an object and at once recognizes 

 it as belonging to one of the two classes ''good to 

 eat" and "not good to eat." This is a step toward 

 a conception and only needs to be named to become 

 full concept. A water bird acts quite differently in 

 alighting upon the water and on the land, thus show- 

 ing a practical recognition of the difference between 

 solids and liquids. In this the bird's mind certainly 

 resembles that of the child when, long before he 

 knows the difference between the words ''hard" and 

 "soft," he jumps quite differently when he is to 

 land on a hard floor or a soft cushion. The recogni- 

 tion of such a practical classification is surely a step 

 toward their clear conception, and certainly in this 

 respect the animal may stand on a par with the 



