VIII. 



MENTAL POWERS OP MAN AND THE LOWER 

 ANIMALS COMPARED. 



Descent ^^ doubt the difference in this respect is 



of Man, enormous, even if we compare the mind of one 

 P^e . ^j ^j^^ 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 civ- 

 ilized 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 Eng- 

 land, and could talk a little English, resembled us in dis- 

 position 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 a 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 



