Mental Evolution in Man 68

Mental Evolution in Man 68

Or, to vary the metaphor, this probability has been as a torrent,

gaining in strength and volume as it is successively fed by facts and

principles poured into it by the advance of many sciences.

 

Of course it is always easy to withhold assent from a probability,

however strong: “My belief,” it may be said, “is not to be wooed; it

shall only be compelled.” Indeed, a man may even pride himself on the

severity of his requirements in this respect; and in popular writings

we often find it taken for granted that any scientific doctrine is

then only entitled to be regarded as scientific when it has been

demonstrated. But in science, as in other things, belief ought to be

proportionate to evidence; and although for this very reason we should

ever strive for the attainment of better evidence, scientific caution

of such a kind must not be confused with a merely ignorant demand

for impossible evidence. Actually to demonstrate the transition from

non-conceptual to conceptual ideation in the race, as it is every day

demonstrated in the individual, would plainly require the impossible

condition that conceptual thought should have observed its own origin.

To demand any demonstrative proof of the transition in the race would

therefore be antecedently absurd. But if, as Bishop Butler says,

“probability is the very guide of life,” assuredly no less is it the

very guide of science; and here, I submit, we are in the presence of

a probability so irresistible that to withhold from it the embrace of

conviction would be no longer indicative of scientific caution, but of

scientific incapacity. For if, as I am assuming, we already accept the

theory of evolution as applicable throughout the length and breadth of

the realm organic, it appears to me that we have positively _better_

reasons for accepting it as applicable to the length and breadth of

the realm mental. In other words, looking to all that has now been

said, I cannot help feeling that there is actually better evidence of

a psychological transition from the brute to the man, than there is of

a morphological transition from one organic form to another, in any

of the still numerous instances where the intermediate links do not

happen to have been preserved. Thus, for example, in my opinion an

evolutionist of to-day who seeks to constitute the human mind a great

exception to the otherwise uniform principle of genetic continuity, has

an even more hopeless case than he would have were he to argue that a

similar exception ought to be made with regard to the structure of the

worm-like creature Balanoglossus.

 

If this comparison should appear to betray any extravagant estimate

on my part of the cogency of the evidence which has thus far been

presented, I will now in conclusion ask it to be remembered that

my case is not yet concluded. For hitherto I have almost entirely

abstained from considering the mental condition of _savages_. The

reason why this important branch of my subject has not been touched

is because I reserve it for the next instalment of my work. But when

we leave the groundwork of psychological principles on which up to

this point we have been engaged, and advance to the wider field of

anthropological research in general, we shall find much additional

evidence of a more concrete kind, which almost uniformly tends to

substantiate the conclusions already gained. The corroboration thus

afforded is indeed, to my thinking, superfluous; and, therefore,

will not be adduced in this connection. Nevertheless, while tracing

the principles of mental evolution from the lowest levels which are

actually occupied by existing man, we shall find that no small light

is incidentally thrown upon the demonstrably still more primitive

intelligence of pre-historic man. Thus shall we find that we are

led back by continuous stages to a state of still human ideation,

which brings us into contact almost painfully close with that of the

higher apes. This, indeed, is a side of the general question which my

opponents are prone to ignore—just as they ignore the parallel side

which has to do with the psychogenesis of a child. And, of course,

when they thus ignore both the child and the savage, so as directly to

contrast the adult psychology of civilized man with that of the lower

animals, it is easy to show an enormous difference. But where the

question is as to whether this is a difference of degree or of kind,

the absurdity of disregarding the intermediate phases which present

themselves to actual observation is surely too obvious for comment.

At all events I think it may be safely promised, that when we come to

consider the case of savages, and through them the case of pre-historic

man, we shall find that, in the great interval which lies between such

grades of mental evolution and our own, we are brought far on the way

towards bridging the psychological distance which separates the gorilla

from the gentleman.

 

 

 

 

INDEX.

 

 

A

 

Abstraction. _See_ Ideas

 

Addison, Mrs. K., on sign-making by a jackdaw, 97

 

Adjectives, appropriately used by parrots, 129, 130, 152;

early use of, by children, 219;

not differentiated in early forms of speech, 295 _et seq._;

origin of Aryan, 306;

and in language generally, 385-86.

 

Adverbs not differentiated in early forms of speech, 306

 

African Bushmen. _See_ Hottentots

 

African languages. _See_ Languages

 

Agglomerative. _See_ Languages

 

Agglutinating. _See_ Languages

 

American languages. _See_ Languages

 

Analytic. _See_ Languages

 

Anatomy, evidence of man’s descent supplied by, 19

 

Animals. _See_ Brutes

 

Animism of primitive man, 275

 

Ants, intelligence of, 52, 53;

sign-making by, 91-95

 

Apes, brain-weight of, 16;

bodily structure of, 19;

counting by, 58, 215;

understanding of words by, 125, 126;

unable to imitate articulate sounds, 153-157;

psychological characters of anthropoid, in relation to the descent

of man, 364-370;

singing, 370, 373-378;

other vocal sounds made by, 374;

erect attitude assumed by, 381, 382

 

Appleyard on language of savages, 349

 

Apposition. _See_ Predication

 

Aristotle, on intelligence of brutes, 12,

and of man, 20;

his classification of the animal kingdom, 79;

his logic based on grammar of the Greek language, 314, 320

 

Articulation, chap. vii.;

classification of different kinds of, 121;

meaningless, 121, 122;

understanding of, 122-129;

by dogs, 128;

use of, with intelligent signification by talking birds, 129-139;

arbitrary use of, by young children, 138-144;

relation of, to tone and gesture, 145-162;

importance of sense of sight to development of, 366, 367;

probable period and mode of genesis of in the race, 370-373

 

Aryan languages. _See_ Languages

 

Aryan race, civilization of, 272;

antiquity of, 273

 

Audouin on a monkey recognizing pictorial representations, 188

 

Axe, discovery of, by neolithic man, 214

 

 

B

 

Barter only used by man, 19

 

Basque language. _See_ Language

 

Bateman, Dr. F., on speech-centre of brain, 134, 135

 

Bates, on intelligence of ants, 92, 93;

on a monkey recognizing pictorial representations, 188.

 

Bats the only mammals capable of flight, 156

 

Bear, intelligence of, 51;

understanding tones of human voice, 124

 

Beattie, Dr., on intelligence of a dog, 100

 

Bees, sign-making by, 90

 

Bell, Professor A. Graham, on teaching a dog to articulate, 128;

on the ideation of deaf-mutes, 150

 

Belt on intelligence of ants, 52, 92

 

Benfry on roots of Sanskrit, 267

 

Berkeley on ideas, 21, 22

 

Binet on analogies between perception and reason, 32

and sensation, 37, 46

 

Bingley on bees understanding tones of human voice, 124

 

Bleek, on origin of pronouns, 302;

on the sentence-words of African Bushmen, 316, 337, 338;

on onomatopœia, 339;

on the clicks of Hottentots and African Bushmen, 373

 

Bonaparte, Prince Lucien, on possible number of articulate sounds, 373

 

Bopp on the origin of speech, 240

 

Bowen, Professor F., on psychology of judgment, 167

 

Boyd Dawkins, Professor, on discovery of axe by neolithic man, 214

 

Bramston, Miss, on intelligence of a dog, 56

 

Brazil, climate and native languages of, 262, 263

 

Brown, Thomas, on generalization, 44

 

Browning, A. H., on intelligence of a dog, 99, 100

 

Brutes, mind of, compared with human, 6-39;

emotions of, 7;

instincts of, 8;

volition of, 8;

intellect of, 9;

Mr. Mivart on psychology of, 10, 177;

as machines, 11;

rationality of, 11, 12;

soul of, 12;

Bishop Butler on immortality of, 12;

instances of intelligence of, 51-63;

ideas of causality in, 58-60;

appreciation of principles by, 60, 61;

sign-making by, 88-102;

understanding of words by, 123-127;

articulation by, 128-138, 152;

reasons why none have become intellectual rivals of man, 154-157;

self-consciousness in relation to, 175-178;

recognizing pictorial representations, 188, 189;

conditions to genesis of self-consciousness manifested by, 195-199;

counting by, 56-58, 214, 215;

psychology of, in relation to the descent of man, 364-384

 

Buffon, on intelligence of brutes, 12, 117;

his parrot, 201