THE DESCENT OB ORIGIN OF MAN 171 



these qualities are merely tlie incidental results of other 

 highly advanced intellectual faculties; and these again 

 mainly the result of the continued use of a perfect lan- 

 guage. 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 ennobling belief in Grod 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 be- 

 tween man and the lower animals; but I need say nothing 

 on this head, as I have so lately endeavored to show that 

 the social instincts — the prime principle of man's moral con- 

 stitution" — 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 ye to them like- 

 wise" ; and this lies at the foundation of morality. 



In the next chapter I shall make some few remarks on 

 the probable steps and means by which the several mental 

 and moral faculties of man have been gradually evolved. 

 That such evolution is at least possible ought not to be 

 denied, for we daily see these faculties developing in every 

 infant; and we may trace a perfect gradation from the mind 

 of an utter idiot,, lower than that of an animal low in the 

 scale, to the mind of a Newton. 



eo "iiie Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius," etc., p. 139. 



