238 ORGANIC EVOLUTION CONSIDERED 



or solve a mathematical problem, or reflect on God, 

 or admire a grand natural scene. Some apes, how- 

 ever, would probably declare that they could and did 

 admire the beauty of the colored skin and fur of 

 their partners in marriage. They would admit that, 

 though they could make other apes understand by 

 cries some of their perceptions and simpler wants, the 

 notion of expressing definite ideas by definite sounds 

 had never crossed their minds. They might insist 

 that they were ready to aid their fellow-apes of the 

 same troop in many ways, to risk their lives for them, 

 and to take charge of their orphans; but they would 

 be forced to acknowledge that disinterested love for 

 all living things, the most noble attribute of man, 

 was quite beyond their comprehension."* 



But he adds : " Nevertheless the difference in mind 

 between man and the higher animals, great as it is, is 

 certainly one of degree and not of kind." Also, 

 " The moral sense perhaps affords the best and high- 

 est distinction between man and the lower animals. "f 



Again he says: " Self-consciousness, Individuality, 

 Abstraction, General Ideas, etc. 



" It would be useless to attempt discussing these high 

 faculties, which, according to several recent writers, 

 make the sole and complete distinction between man 

 and the brutes, for hardly two authors agree in their 

 definitions. Such faculties could not have been fully 

 developed in man until his mental powers had ad- 

 vanced to a high standard, and this implies the use of 

 a perfect language. No one supposes that one of the 

 lower animals reflects whence he comes or whither he 

 goes — what is death or what is life, and so forth." % 



He attempts to explain the origin of these powers 

 as follows: "If it be maintained that certain pow- 

 ers, such as self -consciousness, abstraction, etc., are 



* Descent of Man, Vol. 1, p. 101. t Ibid, p. 100. % Ibid, p. 60. 



