1 26 The Descent of Man. I'aht I, 



quite beyond his scope. Still less, as he would admit, could ha 

 follow out a train of metaphysical reasoning, or solve a mathe- 

 matical problem, or reflect on God, or admire a grand natural 

 scene. Some apes, however, would probably declare that they 

 could and did admire the beauty of the coloured skin and fur of 

 tlieir partners in marriage. They would admit, that though they 

 could make other apes understand by cries some of their per- 

 ceptions and sirtipler 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 acknow- 

 ledge that disinterested love for all living creatures, the most 

 noble attribute of man, was quite beyond their comprehension. 



Nevertheless the difference in mind between man and the 

 higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not 

 of kind. We have seen that the senses and intuitions, the 

 various emotions and faculties, such as love, memory, attention, 

 curiosity, imitation, reason, &c., of which man boasts, may be 

 found in an incipient, or even sometimes in a well-developed 

 condition, in the lower animals. They are also capable of some 

 inherited improvement, as we see in the domestic dog compared 

 with the wolf or jackal. If it could fce proved that certain high 

 mental powers, such as the formation of general concepts, self-con- 

 sciousness, &o., were absolutely peculiar to man, which seems 

 extremely doubtful, it is not improbable that these qualities are 

 merely the incidental results of other highly-advanced intel- 

 lectual faculties; and these again mainly the result of the 

 continued use of a perfect language. At what age does the 

 new-born infant possess the power of abstraction, or become 

 self-conscious, and reflect on its own existence ? We cannot 

 answer ; nor can we answer in regard to the ascending organic 

 scale. The half-art, half-instinct of language still bears the 

 stamp of its gradual evolution. The ennobhng belief in God is 

 not universal with man ; and the belief in spiritual agencies 

 naturally follows from other mental powers. The moral sense 

 perhaps affords the best and highest distinction between man and 

 the lower animals ; but I need say nothing on this head, as I 

 have so lately endeavoured to shew that the social instincts, — 

 the prime principle of man's moral constitution "" — with the aid 

 of active intellectual powers and the effects of habit, naturally lead 

 to the golden rule, " As ye would that men should do to you, do 

 fe to them likewise ;" and this lies at the foundation of morality, 



*• ' The Thoughts of Muicus Aurclius,' &c., p. 139. 



