106 
THE DESCENT OF MAN. 
Part I. 
conscious and reflect on its own existence ? We cannot 
answer ; nor can we answer in regard to the ascending 
organic scale. The half-art and half-instinct of lan- 
guage still bears the stamp of its gradual evolution. 
The ennobling belief in God is not universal with. man ; 
and the belief in active spiritual agencies naturally fol- 
lows from his other mental powers. The moral sense 
perhaps affords the best and highest distinction between 
man and the lower animals ; but I need not say any- 
thing on this head, as I have so lately endeavoured 
to shew that the social instincts, — the prime principle 
of man’s moral constitution 39 — with the aid of active 
intellectual powers and the effects of habit, naturally 
lead to the golden rule, “ As ye would that men should 
“ do to you, do ye to them likewise ; ” and this lies at 
the foundation of morality. 
In a future chapter I shall make some few remarks 
on the probable steps and means by which the several 
mental and moral faculties of man have been gradually 
evolved. That this at least is possible ought not 
to be denied, when we daily see their development in 
every infant; and when we may trace a perfect grada- 
tion from the mind of an utter idiot, lower than that of 
the lowest animal, to the mind of a Newton. 
39 ‘ The Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius,’ &c., p. 139. 
