296 THE DOCTRINE OF DESCENT. 



sometimes ceded to natural inquiry as a means of more 

 certainly rescuing the other side of the dualism. But 

 here, too, we will not be defrauded of our say and our 

 own opinion. The mental powers of man, in their origin, 

 growth, and effects, are likewise susceptible of investiga- 

 tion, and psychology only too long thought it possible 

 to elude physiology. Let us, therefore, proceed in good 

 heart to a short examination. 



It is universally admitted that a certain relationship, 

 or analogy, exists in the psychical capacity of the higher 

 animals and man. Reason alone, it is said, — the essence 

 of psychical agencies by which man attains self-con- 

 sciousness, and rises to abstract conceptions, combines 

 ideas, especially religious ideas, and lives in art and sci- 

 ence, — this the animal does not possess. We reply that 

 animals certainly do not possess this degree of mental 

 development, but neither does man possess it in lower 

 phases of evolution. 



The soul of the new-born infant is, in its manifesta- 

 tions, in no way different from that of the young ani- 

 mal; these manifestations are the functions of the in- 

 fantine nervous system; with this they grow and are de- 

 veloped together with speech. The grade to which this 

 development rises is generally dependent on the preced- 

 ing generations. The psychical capacities of each indi- 

 vidual bear the family type, and are determined by the 

 laws of heredity. For it is simply untrue that, inde- 

 pendently of colour and descent, each man, under con- 

 ditions otherwise alike, may attain a like pitch of mental 

 development. As a proof of this primary equality of 

 mankind, single instances of gifted negroes and Indians 

 are held up to us. But these have behind them un- 



