114 
unrestrained operation amongst savage peoples from time 
immemorial, it is surely irrational in the last degree to adduce 
the similarity of result as a proof that these peoples are en- 
dowed with intellectual faculties radically distinct from our own. 
The inference deducible from the foregoing considerations 
is so obvious that we cannot afford to sacrifice it to the 
exigencies of the gradational system. Great as are the intel- 
lectual differences which distinguish the various races of 
mankind, they are not to be classed with the difference which 
separates him from the brute, and it is difficult to understand 
the affectation which pretends to be “ unable to discriminate 
between the psychical phenomena of a Bushman and a chim- 
panzee.” The Veddah who counts as far as five> can count as 
far as fifty ; the Malay,* who f f has no general term for tree,” 
has hundreds of general terms which require for their concep- 
tion an equal or greater degree of intellectual power. The 
Yeddah whose faculties are absorbed in a continued struggle 
for existence may have first neglected and then forgotten the 
existence of a God, just as the Andaman Islander may have 
forgotten the use of fire; but there is one characteristic of 
humanity which is never found wanting— I mean a recog- 
nition of the distinction between good and evil. The good 
may not be identical with our good, nor the evil with our 
evil; the standard of morality may be higher in one nation 
and lower in another, or it may vary on the same plane, but it 
is always there. 
We seethe animal furnished with instincts the objects of 
which are at once found in the necessities of his existence. 
We see man likewise endowed with instincts without which 
he would have been extinct long ago. We see him in addi- 
tion possessed of a quality essentially distinct from the 
instinct and entirely unnecessary to the preservation of his 
existence, a quality which “ presides over his actions and 
enables him to follow out the end he proposes to himself.” 
To what purpose man was gifted with the intellectual powers, 
the free will, and the moral responsibility thence flowing, is a 
question which is beyond the scope of philosophical investiga- 
tion. There is a theory as old as the hills, and perhaps older, 
but which with those who confound novelty with progress, and 
the advance of human knowledge with the advance of the 
human mind, has fallen into disrepute apparently because it 
is old— 
u Lume V e dato a ben ed a malizia.” 
* Anthropological Review , 1864. This, however, is incorrect. The Malay 
has a general term for tree. 
