274 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II. 



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This is amply proved by the reports on the mental qualities 

 of uncivilized nations, furnished by a great variety of travel- 

 lers. Everywhere we find essentially the same type of intel- 

 lectual activity : the same motives for action, the same mental 

 emotions, the same passions, the same mode of irritation, asso- 

 ciation, etc., are observed in the savage as in the civilized 

 European, without any distinction of race ; and as soon as we 

 can appreciate the motive for action, we find, even in the most 

 ape-like Negro, a homogeneous human nature. 



There is much in the inner life of animals which will, per- 

 haps, ever remain unintelligible to us. What may be their 

 motives for action, what determines their conceptions and 

 associations of ideas, especially their mechanical instinct, is 

 scarcely known to us, for it is very doubtful whether the in- 

 stinct which impels them rests upon some obscure conceptions 

 or upon something specific. But in the presence of human 

 beings we are never in the same dilemma. However great the 

 difference between their mental culture and ours, we may, if 

 time and opportunity are favourable, learn to understand all 

 their actions, and we are thus justified in assuming in the 

 human species, only differences in culture. 



Next to speech must be mentioned some other specific dif- 

 ferences which distinguish man from the brute, namely, the 

 use of a number of external signs expressive of the relations 

 in which persons permanently or temporarily stand to each 

 other; salutation; the signs of veneration or contempt, of 

 peace and friendship, or the reverse; of agreement or dis- 

 agreement, etc. Further, the distinctive marks of rank in 

 clothing, head-dress, ornament, and other marks on the body. 

 Thus, a shorn head frequently marks the slave in Africa; an 

 artificially compressed head, in America, distinguishes the free 

 man; scars of certain forms, and in certain spots, generally 

 distinguish the tribes among Negro peoples. The tattooed 

 figures in the South Sea seem originally to have had the same 

 object in view. 



Another comprehensive class of marks deserves mentioning, 

 such as ornamentation of external life, having little reference 

 to the material well-being. This is found even among the 



