The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex

Chapter 4

Chapter 457 wordsPublic domain

COMPARISON OF THE MENTAL POWERS OF MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS. The difference in mental power between the highest ape and the lowest savage, immense—Certain instincts in common—The emotions—Curiosity—Imitation—Attention—Memory— Imagination—Reason—Progressive improvement —Tools and weapons used by animals—Abstraction, Self-consciousness—Language—Sense of beauty—Belief in God, spiritual agencies, superstitions.