Chap. II. 
MENTAL POWERS. 
49 
wonder and curiosity ; they possess the same faculties 
of imitation, attention, memory, imagination, and reason, 
though in very different degrees. Nevertheless many 
authors have insisted that man is separated through his 
mental faculties by an impassable barrier from all the 
lower animals. I formerly made a collection of above 
a score of such aphorisms, but they are not worth 
giving, as their wide difference and number prove the 
difficulty, if not the impossibility, of the attempt. It 
has been asserted that man alone is capable of progres- 
sive improvement ; that he alone makes use of tools or 
fire, domesticates other animals, possesses property, or 
employs language; that no other animal is self-con- 
scious, comprehends itself, has the power of abstraction, 
or possesses general ideas ; that man alone has a sense 
of beauty, is liable to caprice, has the feeling of grati- 
tude, mystery, &c. ; believes in God, or is endowed with 
a conscience. I will hazard a few remarks on the more 
important and interesting of these points. 
Archbishop Sumner formerly maintained 18 that man 
alone is capable of progressive improvement. With 
animals, looking first to the individual, every one who 
has had any experience in setting traps knows that 
young animals can be caught much more easily than 
old ones ; and they can be much more easily approached 
by an enemy. Even with respect to old animals, it is 
impossible to catch many in the same place and in the 
same kind of trap, or to destroy them by the same kind 
of poison ; yet it is improbable that all should have 
partaken of the poison, and impossible that all should 
have been caught in the trap. They must learn caution 
by seeing their brethren caught or poisoned. In North 
America, where the fur-bearing animals have long been 
18 Quoted by Sir C. Lyell, ‘ Antiquity of Man,’ p. 497. 
YQL. I. E 
