236 VESTIGES OF THE 



the spontaneous working of certain mental faculties, each 

 in relation to tlie things of the external world on which 

 it was intended by creative Providence to be exercised. 

 The monkeys themselves, without instruction from any 

 quarter, learn to use sticks in fighting, and some build 

 houses — an act which cannot in their case be considered 

 as one of instinct, but of intelligence. Such being the 

 case, there is no necessary difficulty in supposing how 

 man, with his superior mental organisation (a brain five 

 times heavier), was able, in his primitive state, without 

 instruction, to turn many things in nature to his use, 

 and commence, in short, the circle of the domestic arts. 

 He appears, in the most unfavourable circumstances, to 

 be able to provide himself with some sort of dwelling, to 

 make weapons and to practise some simple kind of 

 cookery. But, granting, it will be said, that he can go 

 thus far, how does he ever proceed farther unprompted, 

 seeing that many nations remain fixed for ever at this 

 point, and seem unable to take one step in advance ] It 

 is perfectly true that there is such a fixation in many 

 nations ; but, on the other hand, all nations are not alike 

 in mental organisation, and another point has been 

 established, that only when some favourable circum- 

 stances have settled a people in one place, do arts and 

 social arrangements get leave to flourish. If we were 

 to limit our view to humbly endowed nations, or the 

 common class of minds in those called civilised, we should 

 see absolutely no conceivable power for the origination 

 of new ideas and devices. But let us look at the in- 

 ventive class of minds which stand out amongst their 

 fellows — the men who, with little prompting or none, 

 conceive new ideas in science, arts, morals— and 

 we can be at no loss to understand how and whence 

 have arisen the elements of that civilisation which history 



