The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft: The Native Races, Myths and Languages

Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, New Age, History, Fiction & Literature
Cover of the book The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft: The Native Races, Myths and Languages by Hubert Howe Bancroft, Library of Alexandria
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Hubert Howe Bancroft ISBN: 9781465593245
Publisher: Library of Alexandria Publication: March 8, 2015
Imprint: Language: English
Author: Hubert Howe Bancroft
ISBN: 9781465593245
Publisher: Library of Alexandria
Publication: March 8, 2015
Imprint:
Language: English
Hitherto we have beheld Man only in his material organism; as a wild though intellectual animal. We have watched the intercourse of uncultured mind with its environment. We have seen how, to clothe himself, the savage robs the beast; how, like animals, primitive man constructs his habitation, provides food, rears a family, exercises authority, holds property, wages war, indulges in amusements, gratifies social instincts; and that in all this, the savage is but one remove from the brute. Ascending the scale, we have examined the first stages of human progress and analyzed an incipient civilization. We will now pass the frontier which separates mankind from animal-kind, and enter the domain of the immaterial and supernatural; phenomena which philosophy purely positive cannot explain. The primary indication of an absolute superiority in man over other animals is the faculty of speech; not those mute or vocal symbols, expressive of passion and emotion, displayed alike in brutes and men; but the power to separate ideas, to generate in the mind and embody in words, sequences of thought. True, upon the threshold of this inquiry, as in whatever relates to primitive man, we find the brute creation hotly pursuing, and disputing for a share in this progressional power. In common with man, animals possess all the organs of sensation. They see, hear, feel, taste, and smell. They have even the organs of speech; but they have not speech. The source of this wonderful faculty lies further back, obscured by the mists which ever settle round the immaterial. Whether brutes have souls, according to the Aristotelean theory of soul, or whether brute-soul is immortal, or of quality and destiny unlike and inferior to that of man-soul, we see in them unmistakable evidence of mental faculties. The higher order of animals possess the lower order of intellectual perceptions. Thus pride is manifested by the caparisoned horse, shame by the beaten dog, will by the stubborn mule. Brutes have memory; they manifest love and hate, joy and sorrow, gratitude and revenge. They are courageous or cowardly, subtle or simple, not merely up to the measure of what we commonly term instinct, but with evident exercise of judgment; and, to a certain point, we might even claim for them foresight, as in laying in a store of food for winter. But with all this there seems to be a lack of true or connected thought, and of the faculty of abstraction, whereby conceptions are analyzed and impressions defined.
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Hitherto we have beheld Man only in his material organism; as a wild though intellectual animal. We have watched the intercourse of uncultured mind with its environment. We have seen how, to clothe himself, the savage robs the beast; how, like animals, primitive man constructs his habitation, provides food, rears a family, exercises authority, holds property, wages war, indulges in amusements, gratifies social instincts; and that in all this, the savage is but one remove from the brute. Ascending the scale, we have examined the first stages of human progress and analyzed an incipient civilization. We will now pass the frontier which separates mankind from animal-kind, and enter the domain of the immaterial and supernatural; phenomena which philosophy purely positive cannot explain. The primary indication of an absolute superiority in man over other animals is the faculty of speech; not those mute or vocal symbols, expressive of passion and emotion, displayed alike in brutes and men; but the power to separate ideas, to generate in the mind and embody in words, sequences of thought. True, upon the threshold of this inquiry, as in whatever relates to primitive man, we find the brute creation hotly pursuing, and disputing for a share in this progressional power. In common with man, animals possess all the organs of sensation. They see, hear, feel, taste, and smell. They have even the organs of speech; but they have not speech. The source of this wonderful faculty lies further back, obscured by the mists which ever settle round the immaterial. Whether brutes have souls, according to the Aristotelean theory of soul, or whether brute-soul is immortal, or of quality and destiny unlike and inferior to that of man-soul, we see in them unmistakable evidence of mental faculties. The higher order of animals possess the lower order of intellectual perceptions. Thus pride is manifested by the caparisoned horse, shame by the beaten dog, will by the stubborn mule. Brutes have memory; they manifest love and hate, joy and sorrow, gratitude and revenge. They are courageous or cowardly, subtle or simple, not merely up to the measure of what we commonly term instinct, but with evident exercise of judgment; and, to a certain point, we might even claim for them foresight, as in laying in a store of food for winter. But with all this there seems to be a lack of true or connected thought, and of the faculty of abstraction, whereby conceptions are analyzed and impressions defined.

More books from Library of Alexandria

Cover of the book The Life-Work of Flaubert From the Russian of Merejowski by Hubert Howe Bancroft
Cover of the book Discourse on Floating Bodies by Hubert Howe Bancroft
Cover of the book Los pazos de Ulloa by Hubert Howe Bancroft
Cover of the book Journal de Eugène Delacroix (Complete) by Hubert Howe Bancroft
Cover of the book Juliette Drouet's Love-Letters to Victor Hugo with a Biography of Juliette Drouet by Hubert Howe Bancroft
Cover of the book How to Travel: Hints, Advice, and Suggestions to Travelers by Land and Sea all over the Globe by Hubert Howe Bancroft
Cover of the book Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression (Complete) by Hubert Howe Bancroft
Cover of the book A History of American Literature by Hubert Howe Bancroft
Cover of the book Mike's Little brother by Hubert Howe Bancroft
Cover of the book Life Everlasting by Hubert Howe Bancroft
Cover of the book Mated From The Morgue: A Tale of The Second Empire by Hubert Howe Bancroft
Cover of the book Dorothy at Oak Knowe by Hubert Howe Bancroft
Cover of the book The Fifteenth Man by Hubert Howe Bancroft
Cover of the book The Tapu of Banderah by Hubert Howe Bancroft
Cover of the book With Axe and Rifle by Hubert Howe Bancroft
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy