MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF MAN. 7 



first embracing the mental, and the second the corporeal, charac- 

 teristics of mankind. 



In judging of the mental faculties of mankind 1 , not merely 

 those should be considered which an unfortunately situated indi- 

 vidual may display, but those which all the race would display 

 under favourable circumstances. A seed and a pebble may not 

 on a shelf appear very dissimilar, but, if both are placed in the 

 earth, the innate characteristic energies of the seed soon become 

 conspicuous. A savage may in the same manner seem little 

 superior to an orang utan, but, if instruction is afforded to both, 

 the former will gradually develope the powers of our nature in 

 their noble superiority, while the latter will still remain an orang 

 utan. The excellence of man's mind demonstrates itself chiefly 



during a shipwreck, near Athens, resolves to profit by his resemblance to man, 

 for whom the dolphin was anciently said to have a great regard. (See Pliny, 

 Hist. Nat. ix. 8, 9.) In the hurry, 



Un dauphin le prit pour un homme, 

 Et sur son dos le fit asseoir 

 Si gravement, qu'on cut cru voir 

 Le chanteur que tant on renomme. 



Just before landing him, the dolphin asked whether he often saw the Piraeus, to 

 which he unfortunately replied, 



Tous les jours : il est mon ami : 

 C'est une vieille connaissance. 



One glance was sufficient to discover the difference between a man and a 

 monkey. 



Le dauphin rit, tourne la tete ; 



Et, le magot considere, 



II s'apper9oit qu'il n'a tire" 



Du fond des eaux rien qu'une bete ; 



II 1'y replonge, et va trouver 



Quelque homme a fin de le sauver. 



" The difference between the volume of the brain of the orang utan and man 

 is as 5 to 1 : their convolutions differ considerably in number and structure ; the 

 anterior lobes especially are narrowed into a cone, flattened above, hollowed out 

 below, &c. and the difference is much more striking in other apes." Gall, 1. c. 

 t. vi. p. 298. 



1 In the external senses of at least smelling, hearing, and seeing, man is sur- 

 passed by brutes. Whether they have any sense not possessed by us I cannot 

 pretend to say. 



' 



