104 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MAN 



of what is called the moral or mental potentiality of man. 

 It is alleged that, however abject and degraded man is, he 

 nevertheless has certain latent powers or capacities not pos- 

 sessed by other animals. In other words, it is held, though 

 not in the same sense with Burns, that 



A man's a man for a* that 



notwithstanding, that is, all the efforts which science has 

 made, or may make, to show that he is virtually but an 

 animal, and frequently in every sense a brute. Equally 

 truthfully, however, may it be asserted that the potentiality 

 of man must have frequently very narrow limits, while of 

 that of other animals we have as yet but glimmerings. We 

 know what is the actuality of mental and moral acquirement 

 or progress in the savage ; but it is as difficult to admit 

 it would be as inconsistent with fact to believe that his 

 moral or mental potentiality is that, or equal to that, of the 

 civilised European, as it is to admit or believe that the moral 

 or mental potentiality of the lower animals is on a par with 

 that of civilised man. Intelligence is limited alike in the 

 child, the civilised adult, the savage, the human idiot, and the 

 animal, though the limit is not the same in all these cases. 

 The possible range of mental or intellectual power has yet to 

 be determined even in man, and man has also to confess 

 his ignorance of either the latent psychical possibilities or 

 potentialities of other animals, or of their mental acquisi- 

 tions in relation to these potentialities. This subject of 

 potentiality, of possible lartent powers capable of development 

 under favourable conditions, is nearly synonymous with 



7. The capacity for progress or improvement. As regards 

 man, we know that in whole races of savages progress is 

 either non-apparent or to a most limited extent; while 

 many nations have remained stationary for ages, and others 

 have not only retrograded, but perished. The Australian 

 aborigines, according to Madame Bingham, are incapable of 

 civilisation. ' The missionaries have long given up any 

 attempt to civilise them.' The East African negro ' for 

 thousands of years has made no progress, although he has 

 had sufficient contact with cultivated peoples,' according to 



