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CHAPTER OF CRITICISM. 
On the Medium of Mental Power in Man and all other Animals. 
To the Editor of the Naturalist. 
Sir, —In the concluding paragraph of Mr. Lankester’s lecture, published in 
your last number (pp. 128—139), occurs the following passage, which I cannot 
allow to pass without comment:—“ Man stands in the world supreme, and, 
independent of the divine gift of reason, exhibits a structural perfection that 
would point him out as the master-work of the creation. But there is given to 
him a principle denied to other forms of animated beings, a principle that con¬ 
nects him with all that is divine and spiritual beyond the bonds of matter, and 
the records of time.” What this “ principle” is, or is intended to be, we shall 
presently inquire; but let the intended sense of this passage be what it may, it 
will soon be evident, that if we understand the word 46 principle ” in its obvious 
signification, 44 the lecturer here not only contradicts reason, but even his own 
assertion in a previous part of his lecture. 
At p. 130 we find the following :—“ Had it been the object of this paper, it 
would perhaps not have been uninteresting to have pointed out the gradual 
development of organs that takes place in the animal kingdom, in order to shew 
how beautifully gradual are the steps by which the Creator has proceeded to form 
that master-piece of the animal creation, Man.” It is well known, too, that 
there is no actual line of demarcation between the so-called classes of Nature; that 
the higher species of one class lead gradually, and indeed imperceptibly, into the 
lower of another; and that it is only by observing those species which do not so 
closely approximate, that any rational classification can take place. Man may 
indeed classify, but let us not be misled by words; it is not by classifica¬ 
tion, but by gradual development, that Nature proceeds throughout her whole 
system; and, taking u principle” in its proper signification, we can never allow 
that in any stage of her proceedings she introduces a single new principle. 
Animals have no principle which is denied to plants ; for if this were the case, 
there wculd never have been any difficulty in distinguishing those species which 
lie on the confines of the two artificial classes. This, I presume, Mr. Lankester 
will admit without hesitation, if only Man be allowed to form an exception to 
* We talk of the‘ c vital principle take away the word “ vital,” and the remainder will, I 
apprehend, be the meaning attached by every one to the word principle in the above passage. 
But it is a word that should not be employed without a previous definition. 
