268 ELEMENTS OF SCIENCE 



reality or probability of some quasi-social relations 

 between men and invisible intelligences is a common 

 attribute of mankind. 



Considering all the known facts, it is, in our judgment, 

 certain that all men possess an intellectual, as well as a 

 bodily, nature which is essentially one, however either 

 may vary in minor details. As has been said by an 

 authority in these matters : * " There are multitudes of 

 negroes who reach as high an intellectual level as many 

 Europeans. Man's craving to learn the causes at work 

 in each event he witnesses, the reason why each state of 

 things he surveys is such as it is and no other, is no 

 product of high civilisation, but is a characteristic of the 

 human race down to its lowest stage. Among rude 

 savages it is still an intellectual appetite, the satisfaction 

 of which absorbs many a moment not engaged in war, 

 sport, food, or sleep." What can more plainly indicate 

 the presence of this intellect than the apprehension of 

 those very abstract ideas indicated by questions as to 

 " what," " how," and " why." The investigation of such 

 questions constitutes, as we shall see, the highest form of 

 science, and depends upon man's power apprehending 

 the ideas " causation " and " a cause," ideas which are 

 born of our knowledge of our own powers of mental 

 determination, and of giving effect to such mental deter- 

 mination, by our external acts, as also by the resistances 

 our efforts meet with. 



The study of man, of our own nature, especially as 

 revealed to us by psychology (that is, through the inter- 

 rogation of our own consciousness), reveals to us the most 

 wonderful and important novelty wherewith our elemen- 

 tary study of the universe has made us acquainted. In 



* Mr. Tylor. 



