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The Genesis of Mind

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2018

Henry Maudsley
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It might seem unaccountable that, notwithstanding the common sense of mankind has in all ages recognised the existence of intellect in animals, certain philosophers should always have been found to repudiate the vulgar opinion; were it not that experience proves there is much truth in the description which Condillac gives of the philosophers, as “men who love much better an absurdity that they imagine than a truth which all the world adopts.” Though Plato tells us that in the golden age men derived all their knowledge from communication with beasts, and though the little understood and much misunderstood Egyptians of old paid divine honours to certain animals—not, as is sometimes superficially concluded, on account of their brute wisdom, but really as living symbols of Divine intelligence, which they embodied and instinctively displayed—yet the Cartesian philosophy actually denied sensibility to animals, and designated them living machines. For such unmerited ignominy they have, however, been more than compensated by writers who, like M. Charles Bonnet, maintain the existence of immortal souls in them, and predict for them a future world and a happier destiny. The ancients would appear generally to have entertained a somewhat similar opinion; for, without referring to the doctrine of metempsychosis, we have the authority of Homer, who represents Orion as chasing the souls of stags over the plains of hell. And modem instinct, when not perverted by the prejudices and conceit of learning, never fails to acknowledge the rationality of brutes. According to a Scandinavian aphorism, the bear has the strength of ten men and the sense of twelve; and the Red Indians are so impressed with the intellectual powers of this animal that, whenever they have killed one, they scrupulously strive to appease its manes with various important ceremonies. They deck out its head with various trinkets, and make a long speech in which the courage of the departed is praised, its living relatives profusely complimented, and a hope expressed that the conduct of its slayer has been satisfactory both to itself and them. The intelligence of civilisation may dismiss with a smile of pity or contempt such barbarous displays; but the most advanced intelligence will not forget that there is some substratum of truth beneath every superstition, by virtue of which it lives. As no nation ever yet worshipped a piece of carved wood or chiselled stone otherwise than as a symbol of the Great Incomprehensible, by which both barbarous and civilised men are surrounded; so we may rest satisfied that the Red Indian only labours to propitiate the ghost of the bear because he has at times found, to his cost, that its intelligence has surpassed his own. The extremes of attributing too much and too little intelligence to animals will, however, be alike avoided by that sincere and unbiassed observation which, while discrediting all exaggerated theories, willingly recognises the undoubted existence in them of intelligence in its rudimentary form, and strives to point out the evidences of its gradual development through them.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Mental Science , Volume 8 , Issue 41 , April 1862 , pp. 61 - 102
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1862 

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References

∗ “Are not these dumb friends of ours, persons rather than things? Is not their soul ampler, as Plato would say, than their body, and contains rather than is contained? Is not what lives and wills in them, and is affectionate, as spiritual, as immaterial, as truly removed from mere flesh, blood, and bones, as that soul which is the proper self of their master?” (‘Hora: Subsecivae,’ 2nd series, by J. Brown, M.D.) Google Scholar

“Who knowelh that the spirit of man goeth upward, and that the spirit of the beast goeth downward to the earth?” (Occlesiastes, c. iii, v. 21.) Google Scholar

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∗ ‘Leuret,’ op. cit., p. 423. These figures are liere given for the purpose of a general illustration. They have not any special value, as Gratiolet has pointed out, because the relations of the different parts of braiii arc not taken into account. Google Scholar

∗ The referenceis lost; but it wasto someold bookby a ‘Gentleman of Quality.’ Google Scholar

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∗ A case precisely similar was communicated to the writer on the most reliable testimony. Google Scholar

∗ ‘Observations Militaires,’ Paris, 1860, quoted by Gratiolct, ‘Anat. Comp. dn Syst. Nerv., &c.,’ p. 642. Gratiolet relates how two young bears were to be poisoned by throwing to them strong doses of arsenious acid in their food. To save the mother, she was shut up in a cage; the young ones, however, to console their mother, carried portions of the food to her.’ Des Hommes éminents, et, entres autres, M. de Blainville furent témoinsdu cette scène,’ p. 642. Google Scholar

† According to Aristotle, children do not dream in earliest infancy-only do so when they are about four or five years old. In another part, however, be says that the new-born infant dreams, but only remembers its dreams later on in life. Burdach says, the child at the breast dreams, but forgets its dreams till about seven years old. Gratiulet, however, clearly recollects having dreamed when about three years old. (Gratiolet, op. cit., note, p. 497.) Google Scholar

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∗ “Oh Lord! how I do love thieving: if I had thousands I would still be a thief,” once exclaimed an unrepentant young female criminal, whose innate “moral sense” had unhappily taken flight somewhere. For evidence of the utter hopelessness of reforming many criminals, see reports of governors of gaits; for evidence of the cunning cleverness of these unreformable rogues, see reports of chaplains of gaols. Google Scholar

∗ Touching the moral sense in man, it may not he inappropriale to quote here what J. S. Mill says, when speaking of religious helief—“a case instructive in many ways, and not least so as forming a most striking instance of the fallibility of what is called the moral sense; for the odium Iheologicum, in a sincere higot, is one of the most unequivocal cases orfnoral feeling.”—(‘On Liberty.’) J. Stewart Mill. Google Scholar

∗ If it be asked, whether the monkey is really, then, mentally higher than the dog, the reply is, that it is of a higher type, though of a lower development, than the domesticated dog. The effect upon the latter of human influence through generations has heen not only to hring out all the possibilities of its type, hut seemingly to impart to it some of the virtue (if the human type; so that the number of ils ideas is increased, and such ideas as it has are more acutely felt, as canine emotions testify. Google Scholar

∗ As the physiognomy of the young chimpanzee is much more human than that of the full-grown animal, so the mental phenomena of the young are much nearer the human type than those of the full-grown chimpanzees; as the latter grow up, they develope into the specialities of the monkey type. Google Scholar

∗ Rev. J. G. Wood, op. cit. Google Scholar

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∗ Op. cit., Leuret. The odd circumstance is, as some one has remarked, that the baboon should be able to distinguish the female when dressed. Google Scholar

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† The disputes upon these questions seem, in some degree, to be sustainedby the factitious importance of certain words. Moral feeling, like every other state of consciousness, is necessarily a relation, the two elements of which are the individual and external nature. That the power comes solely from either element is evidently, then, a ridiculous supposition; but, as we know that, as a matter of fact, a rightly developing individual does, and must, arrive at moral feeling, it is surely plain that he has the potentiality of it-call this moral germ, or what we will. Google Scholar

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He found a curious custom prevailing near the Equator, where women arc so scarce that there was not a girl above eighteen, who was not already married or betrothed. The marriageable girl is always sold to the highest bidder, and after much wrangling, an agreement is made as to how many days in the week the marriage shall hold good. If for four days, the wife is at liberty for the remaining three to enjoy a free dom from all matrimonial obligations. Google Scholar

∗ Two centuries ago, tlic Indians of North America numliercil aliout 16,000,000 or 17,000,000 souls, without including those of Mexico. The present Indian population is estimated by the Abbé Domenech (‘Seven years’ Residence in North America’) at 2,000,000. Google Scholar

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∗ Gratiolet remarks that Malacarne must have examined congenital idiots; for the laminae are less numerous in the fœtus than in the new-born infant, and less so in the latter than in the ailult; they increase up to a certain age, and, therefore, if development he arrested, they will be less numerous. (Op. cit., p. 90.) Google Scholar

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† In a paper read before the ‘Société d'Anthropologie’ lately. It is evident that on this subject we may expect, ere long, some important information from Gratiolet, who has already dune so much for cerebral anatomy. Google Scholar

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‡ The inferior races, in other points of structure besides that of theirbrains, exhibit approaches towards the monkey type. In the chimpanzee the parietal and sphenoidal bones are prevented from coming in contact by an intervening projection of the temporal bone. Many negro skulls have been observed by Owen to have the same conformation, whereas in the Caucasian, the sphenoidal and parietal bones are in contact for about half an inch. Again, the middle turbinate bones in negroes form large globular protuberances in the nose, whereby the surface of the olfactory membrane is much increased, and the African, like the brute, has an acute smell. In the ape the bicuspids are planted with three fangs; in the Caucasian there is but one fang, which is, however, formed by two being united; in the negroes, the two fangs are distinct. Concerning other interesting points in this approximation, reference may be made to White (‘On the Regular Gradation’) from whom Lawrence (‘Lectures on Man’) has profited. White was, however, clearly far too eager to approximate man to the monkey; for lie distinctly asserted that “the orang-outang has the person, the manner, and the actions of man”—in such opinion being confirmed by Lord Monboddo, who maintained that “the orang-outangs are proved to be of our species by marks of humanity that are iucontestible.” Google Scholar

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∗ Op. cit.; also, ‘Traité des Dégéneresces physiques intellectuelles et morales de l'espèce humaine, et des causes qui produisent ces variétés maladives.’ Catherine de Médicis amused herself with making marriages between dwarfs; they were always sterile. Giants are commonly impotent, and both giants and dwarfs ordinarily die early, according to J. G. St. Ililaire. ‘Hist, des Anom. de l'Org.’ Google Scholar

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† “On sait que les eunuques sont, en général, classe la plus vile de l'espèce liumaine; haches et fourbes, parcequ'ils sont faibles; envieux et mediants, parcequ'ils sont malheureux.”—‘Rapports du Physique et du Morale de l'Homme,’ p. 322, by be P.J.G. Cabanis. Google Scholar

It may be said that there have been instances of eunuchs, as during the decline of the Roman Empire, who have been remarkable for great intellectual power; but the objection does not much affect the opinion with regard to the propagative instinct; for (1) it is the moral development that is most affected by the physical degradation from which eunuchs suffer; and (2) it is known that eunuchs some times have the instinct, and vainly attempt what they have not the power to perform. Google Scholar

∗ See Prof. Schaafhausen on the ‘Crania of the most Ancient Races of Man,’ in Art. xvii, No. 2. ‘Natural History Review,’ from ‘Miiller's Archives,’ 1858. Google Scholar

∗ Prof. Busk observes of these skulls, that they do not belong to the brachycephalic type, and cannot, therefore, be referred to the short-headed race or races which, there is much reason to believe, constituted the earliest of the existing European stocks.’ Google Scholar

† Quoted in ‘Nat. Hist. Review.’ Google Scholar

Dr. Pritchard's comparison of the skulls of the same nation at different times in its history led him to the conclusion that the present inhabitants of Britain, “either as the result of many ages of greater intellectual cultivation, or from some other cause, have, as I am persuaded, much more capacious brain*cases than their fore fathers.” (‘Physical History of Mankind,’ vol. i, p. 305.) Google Scholar

∗ It is not always easy to understand wliat ideas some philosophers wish us to have with respect to the relation of the physical and moral laws in the universe. Dr. Whewell, whose writings it would be almost presumption to praise here, says that physical laws are laws according to which things are and events occur; hut moral laws are laws according to which actions ought to be. And are not physical laws really laws according to which men ought to act, if they wish to act successfully ? A man may break his neck easily if he chooses to ignore the exisience of a law of gravitation, and so such or a like event may be. And similarly, also, by ignoring the existence of moral law an individual comes to a certain punishment; and pain, disease, suffering, remorse, in himself and in his posterity, are events flowing from the infraction of moral law. The greater influence of the human will in determining events under the moral laws than under the physical laws docs not establish any essential distinction, in the mode of action of the former, in nature; for the human will, however free it may he called in its own sphere, is clearly contained in the wider sphere of nature, and acts according to laws which are derivative from the more general laws of nature. It appears, indeed, that the physical and moral laws are so corre lated, that the action of one plainly revenges the infraction of the other. When, therefore, Dr. Whewell speaks of the attainment of a knowledge of nature as the ‘Idealisation of facts, and uses the ‘realisation of moral Ideas’ to express the constant progress of humanity, we are prone to attribute the seemingly untenable distinction to that bias which leads him to underrate, and so painfully to fail iu doing justice to, Locke. Google Scholar

∗ Buckle's ‘History of Civilisation.’ Google Scholar

“La morale de toutes les nations a étée la même.” (Condorcet.) Google Scholar

“In der Morale-philosophie sind wir nicht weiter gekommen, als die Alten.” (Kant.) Google Scholar

“Morality admits no discoveries…. More than 3000 years have elapsed since the composition of the Pentateuch; and let any man, if he is able, say in what important respect the iule of life has varied since that period. Let the institutes of science be explored with the same view-we sl.all arrive at the same conclusion. Let the hooks of false religion he opened;-it will be found that their moral system is, in all its grand features, the same,” &c. (Sir J. Mackintosh.) Google Scholar

∗ “In what condition do I leave the world,” writes Humboldt in 1853, “I who remember 1789, and have shared in its emotions? However, centuries are but seconds in the great process of the development of advancing humanity. Yet the rising curve has small hendinss in it, and it is very inconvenient to find oneself in such a segment of its descending portion.” (Letters to Varnhagen von Ense.) Google Scholar

∗ Denn wo Natur in reinen Kreise waltet Ergreifen alle Wellen sich. (‘Faust,’ p. 367.) Google Scholar

∗ J. Hollingsheacl, in his ‘Ragged London in 1861,’ who has lived amongst the poor and knows tlieir ways, says:—“The simplest forms of insurance are neglected by them …. early reckless marriages are contracted-marriages, as I have said hefore, that are as much a dissipation as gin-drinking or any other abomination. Children are produced without thought, set upon their feet without clothing, taught to walk, turned into the street without food or education, and left to the ragged school, the charitable public, or the devil. They increase and multiply, and all for what? To become paupers; to glut the labour market; to keep their wages down at starvation point; to swell the profits of capital.” Google Scholar

∗ Regarding which we might call to mind the gentle character-rudimentary moral, as it were-of the Ateles, which alone amongst monkeys has those convolutions gene rally considered characteristic of the human brain-the ‘premiere pli de passage,’ and the ‘deuxiemepli de passage.’ Google Scholar

∗ Ancients ami moderns haw often expressed this truth, as Sir W. Hamilton, in his ‘Lectures on Metaphysics’ shows. “Si je tenais la vérité riteptivdans la main, j‘ouvrais la main afin de poursuivre encore la vérité” id Malebranche. Google Scholar

† On which subject we may very properly refer to the grand utterance of the ‘Pater profundas’ in Goethe's ‘Faust,’ commencing Google Scholar

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