ANIMAL PHYSIOLOGY. 
183 
" It appears, thfin, that the mind of man 
differs from that of the lower animals rather as 
to the degree in which the reasoning faculties 
are developed in him than by anything pecu- 
liar in their kind. Anion? the more sagacious 
quadrupeds, it is easy to discover instances of 
reasoning as close and as prolonged as that 
which usually takes place in early childhood ; 
and it is only with the advance of age, and the 
maturity of the powers, that the superiority of 
man becomes evident. There is a tendency, 
however, by -which he seems to be distin- 
guished from all other animals ; — this is, the 
disposition to believe in the existence of an 
unseen but powerful Being, which seems 
never to be wanting (under some form or 
other) in any race or nation, although (like 
other natural tendencies) it may be defective 
in individuals. Attempts have been made by 
some travellers to prove that particular nations 
are destitute of it ; but such assertions have 
been based upon a limited acquaintance with 
their habits of thought, and with their out- 
ward observances ; for there are probably none 
that do not possess the idea of some invisible 
Power external to themselves, whose favour 
they seek, and whose anger they deprecate, by 
sacrifice and other religious observances. It 
requires a higher mental cultivation than is 
commonly to be met with among savage races, 
to conceive of this Power as having a spiritual 
existence ; but it appears, from the reports 
of missionaries who have laboured to spread 
Christianity amongst the heathen, that an 
aptitude or readiness to receive this idea is 
rarely wanting ; so that the facult}' is obviously 
present, though it has not been called into 
operation. 
" Closely connected with this tendency to 
belief in a Great Unseen Power, is the desire 
to share in His spiritual existence, which 
seems to have been implanted by the Creator 
in the mind of man, and which is one of the 
chief natural arguments for the immortality of 
the soul, — since it could hardly be supposed, 
that such a desire should have been implanted 
by our beneficent Maker if it were not in some 
way to be gratified. By the immortal soul, 
the existence of which is thus guessed by man, 
but of whose presence within him he derives 
the strongest evidence from revelation, man 
is connected with beings of a higher order, 
amongst whom intelligence exists, unrestrained 
in its exercise by the, imperfections of the 
bodily frame, with which it is here connected, 
and by whioh it here operates; Such views tend 
to show us the true nobility of man's rational 
and moral nature, and the mode in which he 
may most effectually fulfil the ends for which 
his Creator designed him. "We learn from 
them the evil of yielding to those merely 
BDiraal tendencies, — 'those fleshly lusts which 
war against the soul,' — that are characteristic 
of beings so far below him in the scale of ex- 
istence, and tend to degrade him to their level ; 
and the dignity of those pursuits, which, by 
exercising his intellect, and by expanding and 
strengthening his loftier moral feelings, raise 
him towards beings of a higher and purer 
order. But even the loftiest powers and 
highest aspirations of which he is at present 
capable, may be regarded as but the germs or 
rudiments of those more exalted faculties 
which the human mind shall possess wdien 
purified from the dross of earthly passions, 
and expanded into the comprehension of the 
whole scheme of creation, the soul of man 
shall reflect, without shade or diminution, the 
full effulgence of the love and power of its 
Maker."— Pp. 541—543. 
The last chapter in the volume treats of re- 
production, and here he touches upon the close 
approximation of animals and vegetables in 
the mode of continuing the species. He says — 
" It has been elsewhere shown (Vegct. 
Phys. chaps, ix. xii.) that, in the vegetable 
kingdom, there are two distinct modes b_y 
which the propagation of most kinds of plants 
may take place — the extension of the parent 
structure into new portions, which are inde- 
pendent of each other, and which can main- 
tain their lives when separated from it, and 
the formation of certain bodies, the develop- 
ment of which does not commence until they 
have been cast off from the parent, these being 
nothing else, from the first, than the germs of 
new individuals. Now the bodies of the first 
class are known as leaf-bads in the Flowering 
Plants, and gemma' among the Cryptogamia ; 
many of which last, as the Marchantia (Veget. 
Phys. § 33), are furnished with a peculiar 
means of producing them. These buds may 
be developed in connexion with the parent 
structure, and may continue to form a part of 
it ; or they may be removed from it (as in the 
processes of budding, grafting, &c), and may be 
developed into new individuals. On the other 
hand, the bodies of the second class are known 
as seeds among the Flowering Plants, and as 
spores among the Cryptogamia. From the 
very first, these are destined to produce new 
individuals; and their development does not 
take place until they arc cast oft* from the 
parent, which frequently (as in ftnnual plants) 
dies as soon as it has matured them and set 
them free. Both these modes of reproduction 
exist in the animal kingdom; but t lie former 
is confined to its lowest tribes ; and among 
these, we not only find a tendency to multi- 
plication by buds, but an extraordinary power 
of regenerating lost parts, and even of repro- 
ducing the whole structure from a small por- 
tion of it." — P. o4o. 
