INSTINCTIVE IDEAS. 149 



and mental powers capable of all the 

 developments which we see in the most 

 advanced industrial arts. These acts involve 

 the instinctive idea of the constancy of 

 natural causes, and the capacity of thought 

 which gives men the conviction that what 

 has happened under given conditions will 

 under the same conditions always happen 

 again. Did Dr. Whately mean that Man 

 must have been instructed by God how to 

 throw a stone, or to wield a stick, or to 

 hurl a javelin, or to build a hut ? And if so, 

 at what point did such lessons in mechanics 

 stop ? Is it not evident that the more perfect 

 we suppose the first man to have been, so far 

 as regards at least his powers of thought, 

 of observation, and of reflection, \ the less 



