308 COSMIC PHILOSOPHT. [pt. il 



moment."'^ It ouly remains to note that the difference Id 

 specific accuracy, here illustrated by contrasting the opera- 

 tions of science with those of ordinary knowledge, is equally 

 conspicuous when, on a somewhat wider scale, we contrast 

 the proceedings, both scientific and artistic, of civilized men 

 with the proceedings of the lowest savages. The most 

 ignorant man in New England probably knows in June that 

 winter is just six months distant; the Australian, to whon., 

 as to the civilized child, time appears to go slowly, knows 

 only that it is a long way off. So, too, the crude knives and 

 hammers and the uncouth pottery of primeval men are 

 distinguished alike by their indefiniteness of contour, and by 

 their uselessness in operations which require specific accuracy. 

 And here, as before, in the extreme vagueness and lack of 

 speciality, both in his knowledge and in the actions which 

 are guided by it, the primeval man appears to stand nearer to 

 the highest brutes than to the civilized moderns. 



Along with this increase in specialization, entailing 

 greater definiteness of adjustment, there goes on an in- 

 crease in genei'alization, involving an increased power of 

 abstraction, of which barely the germs are to be found either 

 in the lowest men or in other highly organized mammals. 

 The inability of savage races to make generalizations in- 

 volving any abstraction is sufficiently proved by the absence 

 or extreme paucity of abstract expressions in their languages. 

 As IMr. Farrar observes, " The Society-Islanders have words 

 for dog's tail, bird's tail, and sheep's tail, yet no word for 

 tail ; the Mohicans have verbs for every kind of cutting, and 

 yet no verb ' to cut.' The Australians have no generic term 

 for fish, bird, or tree. The Malavs have no term for tree or 

 herb, yet they have words for fibre, root, tree-crown, stalk, 

 stock, trunk, twig, and shoot. Some American tongues have 

 separate verbs for ' I wish to eat meat,' and ' I wish to eat soup, 

 but no verb for *I wish' ; and separate words for a blow with 



1 Spencer, op. cit. :, 340. 



