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founded upon * a faculty certainly peculiar to man , namely—Man can teach whatever he can learn . The being able to teach , and not the being able to reason , is the distinguishing characteristic of our race . The brutes are not teachers . They may teach their young to a certain extent , and many animals discover a wonderful aptness to learn of man certain things . Men can train horses , and teach
elephants , dogs , monkeys , parrots , and other tribes , to perform certain tricks , or jpven to articulate certain sounds ; but none of these animals can transfer their lessons to each other , or even to their young . ] STo animal-training has ever told upon the race , or extended beyond the individual trained . "We may physically improve the breed , but we cannot add a single intellectual capacity , nor confer a single endowment beyond the individual on whom our efforts are expended . If
a man discovers the art of printing , the art goes down ( probably improving ) from generation to generation , but we cannot teach the brute to teach : he is inherently incapable of advancing his species ; whereas an intelligent child not only receives the instructions of his parent , but can impart them in after years to the next generation . Hence man is capable of indefinite advance . Yet his works , as compared with those of the brute , are confessedly imperfect . He will
never learn to build a nest , nor construct a honeycomb , nor weave a spider ' s web . All these works are absolutely perfect , and can never be improved , But man , who can build in one generation a rude settler ' s hut , and nothing better , in the next produces a cottage or a mansion ; then a monument or a bridge ; and at length he rears a classic edifice , or clothes his marble statue with all but the inspiration of life .
The brute never retrogrades . His instinctive powers are ever equal to his wants . In a new climate , new powers suitable to new emergencies are bestowed ; whereas man , who in one generation carves a " statue that enchants the world , " again degenerates into barbarism , ignorance , and sloth . The very greatness which completes the glory of an empire infallibly becomes an element of its speedy downfall , and in a few lustra or centuries it crumbles into dust ; and with
all its capabilities of greatness , human nature may remain for ages sunk iri ignorance and barbarism . In the account of the expedition of Hanno the Carthaginian round the coast of Africa ( once the land of science and of art ) , with his sixty vessels and thirty thousand sailors , it is recorded that during the day the coast was ever still and silent , but that at night the mountains seemed to be all on fire , and the sounds of flutes , drums , and cymbals , were mingled with wild
screams and piercing cries . And if recent voyagers are to be credited , these savage customs appear to have remained unaltered for twenty-five centuries . They tell us of the same stillness by day ; the same nocturnal fires , the clang of barbarous music , and the wild merriment of the natives in the cool of the evenings , as occurrences still common along the western coast of Africa . Here , then , there has been no advance , no cultivation of the teaching faculty , no improvement of man ' s boasted intellect . These savages are oven now as low
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
founded upon * a faculty certainly peculiar to man , namely—Man can teach whatever he can learn . The being able to teach , and not the being able to reason , is the distinguishing characteristic of our race . The brutes are not teachers . They may teach their young to a certain extent , and many animals discover a wonderful aptness to learn of man certain things . Men can train horses , and teach
elephants , dogs , monkeys , parrots , and other tribes , to perform certain tricks , or jpven to articulate certain sounds ; but none of these animals can transfer their lessons to each other , or even to their young . ] STo animal-training has ever told upon the race , or extended beyond the individual trained . "We may physically improve the breed , but we cannot add a single intellectual capacity , nor confer a single endowment beyond the individual on whom our efforts are expended . If
a man discovers the art of printing , the art goes down ( probably improving ) from generation to generation , but we cannot teach the brute to teach : he is inherently incapable of advancing his species ; whereas an intelligent child not only receives the instructions of his parent , but can impart them in after years to the next generation . Hence man is capable of indefinite advance . Yet his works , as compared with those of the brute , are confessedly imperfect . He will
never learn to build a nest , nor construct a honeycomb , nor weave a spider ' s web . All these works are absolutely perfect , and can never be improved , But man , who can build in one generation a rude settler ' s hut , and nothing better , in the next produces a cottage or a mansion ; then a monument or a bridge ; and at length he rears a classic edifice , or clothes his marble statue with all but the inspiration of life .
The brute never retrogrades . His instinctive powers are ever equal to his wants . In a new climate , new powers suitable to new emergencies are bestowed ; whereas man , who in one generation carves a " statue that enchants the world , " again degenerates into barbarism , ignorance , and sloth . The very greatness which completes the glory of an empire infallibly becomes an element of its speedy downfall , and in a few lustra or centuries it crumbles into dust ; and with
all its capabilities of greatness , human nature may remain for ages sunk iri ignorance and barbarism . In the account of the expedition of Hanno the Carthaginian round the coast of Africa ( once the land of science and of art ) , with his sixty vessels and thirty thousand sailors , it is recorded that during the day the coast was ever still and silent , but that at night the mountains seemed to be all on fire , and the sounds of flutes , drums , and cymbals , were mingled with wild
screams and piercing cries . And if recent voyagers are to be credited , these savage customs appear to have remained unaltered for twenty-five centuries . They tell us of the same stillness by day ; the same nocturnal fires , the clang of barbarous music , and the wild merriment of the natives in the cool of the evenings , as occurrences still common along the western coast of Africa . Here , then , there has been no advance , no cultivation of the teaching faculty , no improvement of man ' s boasted intellect . These savages are oven now as low