THE DESCENT OR OBiaiN OF MAJf 95 



g, wholly different nature from those of the lower animals, 

 then we should never have been able to convince ourselves 

 that our high faculties had been gradually developed. But 

 it can be shown that there is no fundamental difference of 

 this kind. We must also admit that there is a much wider 

 interval in mental power between one of the lowest fishes, 

 as a lamprey or lancelet, and one of the higher apes, than 

 between an ape and man; yet this interval is filled up by 

 numberless gradations. 



Nor is the difference slight in moral disposition between 

 a barbarian, such as the man described by the old navigator 

 Byron, who dashed his child on the rocks for dropping a 

 basket of sea-urchins, and a Howard or Clarkson; and in 

 intellect, between a savage who uses hardly any abstract 

 terms and a Newton or Shakespeare. Differences of this 

 kind between the highest men of the highest races and the 

 lowest savages are connected by the finest gradations. 

 Therefore it is possible that they might pass and be 

 developed into each other. 



My object in this chapter is to show that there is no 

 fundamental difference between man and the higher mam- 

 mals in their mental faculties. Bach division of the subject 

 might have been extended into a separate essay, but must 

 here be treated briefly. As no classification of the mental 

 powers has been universally accepted^I shall arrange my 

 remarks in the order most convenient for my purpose; and 

 will select those facts which have struck me most, with the 

 hope that they may produce some effect on the reader./ 



With respect to animals very low in the scale, I shall 

 give some additional facts under Sexual Selection, showing 

 that their mental powers are much higher than might have 

 been expected. The variability of the faculties in the indi- 

 viduals of the same species is an important point for us, and 

 some few illustrations will here be given. But it would be 

 superfluous to enter into many details on this head, for I 

 have found, on frequent inquiry, that it is the unanimous 

 opinion of all those who have long attended to animals of 



