Aesthetics consists of matters of fact and existence.--1892.]--Author's
note.]

[Footnote 56: Or, to speak more accurately, the physical state of which
volition is the expression.--1892.--Author's note.]




COMPARISON OF THE MENTAL POWERS OF MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS[57]

CHARLES DARWIN


My object in this chapter is to show that there is no fundamental
difference between man and the higher mammals in their mental faculties.
Each division of the subject might have been extended into a separate
essay, but must here be treated briefly. As no classification of the
mental powers has been universally accepted, I shall arrange my remarks
in the order most convenient for my purpose; and will select those facts
which have struck me most, with the hope that they may produce some
effect on the reader.

As man possesses the same senses as the lower animals, his fundamental
intuitions must be the same. Man has also some few instincts in common,
as that of self-preservation, sexual love, the love of the mother for
her new-born offspring, the desire possessed by the latter to suck, and
so forth. But man, perhaps, has somewhat fewer instincts: than those
possessed by the animals which come next to him in the series. The orang
in the Eastern islands and the chimpanzee in Africa build platforms on