S4 THE DESCENT OF MAN 



CHAPTER III 



COMPARISON OF THE MENTAL POWERS OF MAN AND THB 

 LOWER ANIMALS 



The difference in mental power between the highest ape and the lowest 

 savage, immense — Certain instincts in common — The emotions — 

 Curiosity — Imitation — Attention — Memorj^ — Imagination — Reason — 

 Progressive improvement — Tools and weapons used by animals — 

 Abstraction, self-consciousness — Language — Sense of beauty — Belief 

 in God, spiritual agencies, superstitions 



WE have seen in the last two chapters that man bears 

 in his bodily structure clear traces of his descent 

 from some lower form; but it may be urged that, 

 as man differs so greatly in his mental power from all other 

 animals, there must be some error in this conclusion. No 

 doubt the difference in this respect is enormous, even if we 

 compare the mind of one of the lowest savages, who has 

 no words to express any number higher than four, and who 

 uses hardly any abstract terms for common objects or for 

 the affections, ' with that of the most highly organized ape. 

 The difference would, no doubt, -still remain immense, even 

 if one of the higher apes had been improved or civilized as 

 much as a dog has been in comparison with its parent- form, 

 the wolf or jackal. The Fuegians rank among the lowest 

 barbarians; but I was continually struck with surprise how 

 closely the three natives on board H.M.S. "Beagle," who 

 had lived some years in England, and could talk a little 

 English, resembled us in disposition and in most of our 

 mental faculties. If no organic being excepting man had 

 possessed any mental power, or if his powers had been of 



' See the evidence on those points, as given by Lubbock, "Prehistoric 

 Times," p. 354, etc. 



