Chap. II. 
MENTAL POWERS. 
53 
flints, and not a very wide step to rudely fashion them. 
This latter advance, however, may have taken long 
ages, if we may judge by the immense interval of time 
which elapsed before the men of the neolithic period 
took to grinding and polishing their stone tools. In 
breaking the flints, as Sir J. Lubbock likewise remarks, 
sparks would have been emitted, and in grinding them 
heat would have been evolved: “thus the two usual 
“ methods of obtaining fire may have originated.” The 
nature of fire would have been known in the many 
volcanic regions where lava occasionally flows through 
forests. The anthropomorphous apes, guided probably 
by instinct, build for themselves temporary platforms ; 
but as many instincts are largely controlled by reason, 
the simpler ones, such as this of building a platform, 
might readily pass into a voluntary and conscious act. 
The orang is known to cover itself at night with the 
leaves of the Pandanus ; and Brehm states that one of 
his baboons used to protect itself from the heat of the 
sun by throwing a straw-mat over its head. In these 
latter habits, we probably see the first steps towards 
some of the simpler arts ; namely rude architecture 
and dress, as they arose amongst the early progenitors 
of man. 
Language— This faculty has justly been considered as 
one of the chief distinctions between man and the lower 
animals. But man, as a highly competent judge, Arch- 
bishop Whately remarks, “ is not the only animal that 
“ can make use of language to express what is passing in 
“ his mind, and can understand, more or less, what is so 
“ expressed by another.” 29 la Paraguay the Cebus azar&e 
when excited utters at least six distinct sounds, which 
29 Quoted in 4 Anthropological Review/ 1864, p. 158. 
