MENTAL CONSTJT 7TI0N OF ANIMALS. ISJ 



Here I may advert to a very interesting analogy between 

 the mental characters of the types in the quinary system 

 of zoology and the characters of individual men. We 

 have seen that the pre-eminent type is usually endowed 

 with an harmonious assemblage of the mental qualities be- 

 > longing to the whole group, while the sub-typical inclines 

 to ferocity, the rasorial to gentleness, and so on. Now, 

 among individuals, some appear to be almost exclusively 

 of the sub- typical, and others of the rasorial charac- 

 ters, while to a limited number is given the finely as- 

 sorted assemblage of qualities which places them on a 

 parallel with the typical. To this may be attributed the 

 universality which marks all the very highest brains, 

 such as those of Shakspeare and Scott, men of whom it 

 has been remarked that they must have possessed within 

 themselves not only the poet, but the warrior, the states- 

 man, and the philosopher ; and who, moreover, appear 

 to have had the mild and manly, the moral and the forci- 

 ble parts of our nature in the most perfect balance. 



There is, nevertheless, a general adaptation of the men- 

 tal constitution of man to the circumstances in which he 

 lives, as there is between all the parts of nature to each 

 other. The goods of the physical world are only to be re- 

 alized by ingenuity and industrious exertion ; behold, ac- 

 cordingly, an intellect full of device, and a fabric of the 

 faculties which would go to pieces or destroy itself if it 

 were not kept in constant occupation. Nature presents 

 to us much that is sublime and beautiful: behold faculties 

 which delight in contemplating these properties of hers, 

 and in rising upon them, as upon wings, to the presence 

 of the Eternal. It is also a world of difficulties and perils, 

 and see how large a portion of our species are endowed 

 with vigorous powers which take pleasure in meeting and 

 overcoming difficulty and danger. Even that principle on 

 which our faculties are constituted — a wide range of free- 

 dom in which to act for all various occasions — necessitates 

 a resentful faculty, by which individuals may protect them- 

 selves from the undue and capricious exercise of ea^h 

 other's faculties, and thus preserve their individual rights 

 Sc also there is cautiousness, to give us a tendency to 

 provide against the evils by which we may be assailed ; 

 and secretiveness, to enable us to conceal whatever, being 

 divulged, would be offensive to others or injurious to our- 

 selves-— a function which obviously has a certair l^gitf 



