ClIAP. n. 
MENTAL POWERS. 
49 
fonder and curiosity ; they possess the same faculties 
mutation, attention, memory, imagination, and reason, 
, ‘°«Sh in very different degrees. Nevertheless many 
11 mrs have insisted that man is separated through his 
llf ntal faculties by an impassable barrier from all the 
a °' Ve i animals. I formerly made a collection of above 
\ SC01 'e of such aphorisms, but they are not worth 
aS ^eir "Ide difference and number prove the 
j J “ieulty, if not the impossibility, of the attempt. It 
! as been asserted that man alone is capable of progres- 
?!' e improvement : that he alone makes use of tools or 
r> le ’ domesticates other animals, possesses property, or 
l 3 l °J T s language; that no other animal is self-con- 
Cl ° Us ’ c °mprehends itself, has the power of abstraction, 
of | )0SSesses general ideas ; that man alone has a sense 
bid eUUt “'’ * s liable to caprice, has the feeling of grati- 
mystery, &c. ; believes in God, or is endowed with 
Conscience. I will hazard a few remarks on the more 
^Portant a 
and interesting of these points. 
^ ebbishop Sumner formerly maintained 18 that man 
lle ls capable of progressive improvement. With 
n. • p vv Vi Y U JUXjJiV/ » CpUJULUi »» A l/AA 
11 ms, looking first to the individual, everv one who 
Uls had 
any experience in setting traps knows that 
-J VAAp WA iV'J VO JAA OV VAX VA X4X1V M U va»wv 
old aai,na ls can be caught much more easily than 
iJ y an 
ones ; and they can he much more easily approached 
enemy. Even with respect to old animals, it is 
^possible to catch many in the same place and in the 
0| ""' kind of trap, or to destroy them by the same kind 
■ i ,01s °n j yet it is improbable that all should have 
j,. °f the poison, and impossible that all should 
I e , een caught in the trap. They must learn caution 
Am^ lng brethren caught or poisoned. In North 
UlCa > where the fur-hearing animals have long been 
Quoted by g; r (j. Lyell, • Antiquity of Mali,’ p. -107. 
' I- E 
