36 
THE DESCENT OF MAN. 
Part I. 
might have been expected. The variability of the facul- 
ties in the individuals of the same species is an im- 
portant point for ns, and some few illustrations will here 
be given. But it would be superfluous to enter into 
many details on this head, for I have found on frequent 
enquiry, that it is the unanimous opinion of all those 
who have long attended to animals of many kinds, 
including birds, that the individuals differ greatly in 
every mental characteristic. In what manner the mental 
powers were first developed in the lowest organisms, 
is as hopeless an enquiry as how life first originated. 
These are problems for the distant future, if they are 
ever to be solved by man. 
As man possesses the same senses with the lower 
animals, his fundamental intuitions must be the same. 
Man has also some few instincts in common, as that of 
self-preservation, sexual love, the love of the mother for 
her new-born offspring, the power possessed by the 
latter of sucking, and so forth. But man, perhaps, has 
somewhat fewer instincts than those possessed by the 
animals which come next to him in the series. The 
orang in the Eastern islands, and the chimpanzee in 
Africa, build platforms on which they sleep ; and, as both 
species follow the same habit, it might be argued that 
this was due to instinct, but we cannot feel sure that it is 
not the result of both animals having similar wants and 
possessing similar powers of reasoning. These apes, as 
we may assume, avoid the many poisonous fruits of the 
tropics, and man has no such knowledge ; but as our 
domestic animals, when taken to foreign lands and when 
first turned out in the spring, often eat poisonous herbs, 
which they afterwards avoid, we cannot feel sure that 
the apes do not learn from their own experience or 
from that of their parents what fruits to select. It is 
however certain, as we shall presently see, that apes have 
