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Show 48 THE DESCENT OF l\fAN. PART L 1\ir. Colquhoun 16 winged two wild-duc~s, whic!1 fell on the opposite side of a stream ; his retnever tned to bring over both at once, but could not succeed ; she then thouah never before known to ruffle a feather, deliberate!; killed one, brought over the other, and returned for the dead bird. Col. Hutchinson relates that two partridges were shot at once, one being killed, the other wounded; the latter ran away, and was caught by the retriever, who on her return came across the dead bird; "she stopped, evidently greatly puzzled, and " after one or two trials, £nding she could not take it up " without permitting the escape of the winged bird, she " considered a moment, then deliberately murdered it " by giving it a severe crunch, and afterwards brought ':away both together. This was the only known in" stance of her ever having wilfully injured any game." Here we have reason, though not quite perfect, for the retriever might have brought the wounded bird first and then returned for the dead one, as in the case of the two wild-ducks. The muleteers in S. America say, "I will not give "you the mule whose step is easiest, but lamas racional, "-the one that reasons best;" and Humboldt 17 adds, " this popular expression, dictated by long experience, " combats the system of animated machines, better per" haps than all the arguments of speculative philosophy." It bas, I think, now been shewn that man and the higher animals, especially the Primates, have some few instincts in common. All have the same senses, intuitions and sensations-similar passions, affections, and emotions, even the more complex ones ; they feel 16 'The Moor and the Loch,' p. 45. Col. Hutchinson ou 'Dog Breaking,' 1850, p. 46. 17 'Personal Narrative,' Eng. trnnslat., vol. iii. p. 106. C:JAP. II. MENTAL PO"WERS. 49 wonder and curiosity ; they possess the same faculties of imitation, attention, memory, imagination, and reason, though in very different degrees. Nevertheless many authors have insisted that man is separated through his mental faculties by an impassable barrier from all the lower animals. I formerly made a collection of above a score of such aphorisms, but they are not worth giving, as their wide difference and number prove the (,lifficult.y, if not the impossibility, of the attempt. It has been asserted that man alone is capable of progressive improvement; that he alone makes use of tools or fire, domesticates other animals, possesses property, or .employs language; that no other animal is self. conscious, comprehends itself, has the power of abstraction, or possesses general ideas; that man alone has a sense of beauty, is liable to caprice, has t.he feeling of gratitude, mystery, &c. ; believes in God, or is endowed with a conscience. I will hazard a few remarks on the more important and interesting of these points. Archbishop Sumner formerly maintained 18 that man alone is capable of progressive improvement. With .animals, looking first to the individual, every one who has had any experience in setting traps knows that young animals can be caught much more easily than old ones; and they can be much more easily approached by an enemy. Even with respect to old animals, it is impossible to catch many in the same place and in the same kind of trap, or to destroy them by the same kind of poison; yet it is improbable that all should have partaken of the poison, and impossible that all should have been caught in the trap. They must learn caution by seeing their brethren caught or poisoned. In North America, where the fur-bearing animals have long been 18 Quoted by Sir C. Lyell, 'Antiquity of Man,' p. 497. YOL. I. E |
