178 MENTAL CONSTITUTION OF ANIMALS. 



Generally speaking, as we ascend in the scale, wc see 

 more and more of the faculties in exercise, and these 

 tending more to the indefinite mode of manifestation. 

 And for this there is the obvious reason in Providence, 

 that the lowest animals have all of them a very limited 

 sphere of existence, born only to perform a few functions, 

 and enjoy a brief term of life, and then give way to 

 another generation, so that they do not need much mental 

 guidance. At higher points in the scale, the sphere of 

 existence is considerably extended, and the mental opera- 

 tions are less definite accordingly. The horse, dog, and 

 a few other rasorial types, noted for their serviceableness 

 to our race, have the indefinite powers in no small en- 

 dowment. Man, again, shows very little of the definite 

 mode of operation, and that little chiefly in childhood, 01 

 in barbarism or idiocy. Destined for a wide field of action, 

 and to be applicable to infinitely varied contingencies, he 

 has all the faculties developed to a high pitch of indefi- 

 niteness, that he may be ready to act well in all imagina- 

 ble cases. His commission, it may be said, gives large 

 discretionary powers, while that of the inferior animals is 

 limited to a few precise directions. But when the human 

 brain is congenitally imperfect or diseased, or when it h 

 in the state of infancy, we see in it an approach towards 

 the character of the brains of some of the inferior animals. 

 Dr. G. J. Davey states that he has frequently witnessed, 

 among his patients at the Hanwell Lunatic Asylum, indi- 

 cations of a particular abnormal cerebration which forci- 

 bly reminded him of the specific healthy characteristics 

 of animals lower in the scale of organization ;* and every 

 one must have observed how often the actions of children, 

 especially in their moments of play, and where their 

 selfish feelings are concerned, bear a resemblance to those 

 of certain familiar animals. f Behold, then, the wonder- 

 ful unity of the whole system. The grades of mind, like 

 the forms of being, are mere stages of development. In 

 the humbler forms, but a few of the mental faculties are 

 traceable, just as we see in them but a few of the linea- 

 ments of universal structure. In man, the system hag 



* Phrenological Journal, xv., 338. 



f A pampered lap-dog, living where there is another of its own 

 species, will hide any nice morsel which it cannot eat, under a rug 

 or in some other by-place, designing to enjoy it afterverds. I havo 

 seen children do the same thing 



