It has, 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, such as jealousy,
suspicion, emulation, gratitude, and magnanimity; they practise deceit
and are revengeful; they are sometimes susceptible to ridicule, and
even have a sense of humour; they feel wonder and curiosity; they
possess the same faculties of imitation, attention, deliberation,
choice, memory, imagination, the association of ideas, and reason,
though in very different degrees. The individuals of the same species
graduate in intellect from absolute imbecility to high excellence. They
are also liable to insanity, though far less often than in the case of
man. (30. See Madness in Animals, by Dr. W. Lauder Lindsay, in
Journal of Mental Science, July 1871.) Nevertheless, many authors
have insisted that man is divided by an insuperable barrier from all
the lower animals in his mental faculties. I formerly made a collection
of above a score of such aphorisms, but they are almost worthless, as
their wide difference and number prove the difficulty, 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, or possesses property; that no animal
has the power of abstraction, or of forming general concepts, is
self-conscious and comprehends itself; that no animal employs language;
that man alone has a sense of beauty, is liable to caprice, has the
feeling of gratitude, mystery, etc.; 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 (31. Quoted by Sir C. Lyell,
Antiquity of Man, p. 497.) that man alone is capable of progressive
improvement. That he is capable of incomparably greater and more rapid
improvement than is any other animal, admits of no dispute; and this is
mainly due to his power of speaking and handing down his acquired
knowledge. 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
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