SUMMARY. 295 



the animal world. It would, for instance, be a grave 

 mistake to compare a tiger with a bloodthirsty 

 executioner of the Reign of Terror, since the former 

 only satisfies his natural appetite in preying on 

 other mammals. The atrocities of the trials for 

 witchcraft, the indiscriminate slaughter committed 

 by the negroes on the coast of Guinea, the sacrifice 

 of human victims made by the Khonds, the dis- 

 memberment of living men by the Battas, find no 

 parallel in the habits of animals in their savage 

 state. And such a comparison is, above all, impos- 

 sible in the case of anthropoids, which display no 

 hostility towards men or other animals unless they 

 are first attacked. In this respect the anthropoid 

 ape stands on a higher plane than many men. 



A great chasm between man and anthropoids is 

 constituted, as I believe, by the fact that the 

 human race is capable of education, and is able to 

 acquire the highest mental culture, while the most 

 intelligent anthropoid can only receive a certain 

 mechanical training. And even to this training 

 a limit is set by the surly temper displayed by 

 anthropoids as they get older. They are interesting 

 subjects of study in the menagerie, but they never 

 become, like our ordinary domestic animals, useful 

 members of the household economy. I myself hold 

 that all human races are capable of culture, while 

 differing in the degree to which it is possible for 

 them to attain. I do not, for example, suppose 

 that a tribe of Queensland Australians can be so 

 educated as to be placed on a level with the highest 

 intellects of our own nation. But how many ages 



