Ethnology : three papers read before the Ethnological Society of London, and published in the transactions of the Society / by Robert Dunn.

  • Dunn, Robert.
Date:
1861
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Ethnology : three papers read before the Ethnological Society of London, and published in the transactions of the Society / by Robert Dunn. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    manifested ; and thus, in the progress of mental development, to the sensational the perceptive phenomena are superaclelect, these are ideation and volition, with their associates memory and emotional sensibility. . The genesis of the will and of the memory is in the perceptive consciousness ; and it is,. through, the perceptive consciousness, that the animal propensities anu affections, and the emotional, moral, and religious impressions and feelings are evolved and brought into play. For the per- ceptive consciousness is not limited in the sphere of . its action to the mere ideation of external existences, their sensib e qualities and physical attributes. It has a far more extended rano-e, for excepting the sensational intuitions, all our imme- diate or intuitive knowledge of whatever kind, appertaining to man, as a social, moral, and religious being, has its origin or source in perceptive experience. Long before he has attained even to the utterance of articulate speech, and as soon as the perceptive consciousness begins to dawn, and the power of recognition is awakened, he is able intuitively to interpiet the tones, gestures, and expressions of emotion, and becomes sym- pathetically affected by them. Before all teaching, he has an intuitive esthetic sense of the true, the beautiful, and the good ; of sublimity in nature, and of harmony in sound. Moral intuitions of right and wrong, and emotional of awe, venera- tion and reverence. Thus, an intuitive appiehension of myht and wrong is attached to certain actions, and evidently pi ecedes in his mind any distinct comprehension of the language, by which moral truths are conveyed. The flush upon the cheek, and the early sense of shame, come before there has been any traces of thought, as the consequences of misconduct or crime. In the expressive language of Lord Bacon “ I he light of nature not only shines upon the human mind, through the medium of the rational faculty, but by an internal instinct, according to the law of conscience, which is a sparkle of the purity of man’s first estate.” And so again with the moral are closely connected the religious intuitions of his soul. These are developed more or less distinctly amongst the earliest of human sentiments, in the form of awe, veneration, and reverence, inspired by objects of sublimity, grandeur, vast- ness, and mystery. In process of time, other elements, first the intellectual, then the moral, are joined to our primary intuitions, until at length man reaches the elevation of an intel- ligent, voluntary, and cheerful dependence upon an Infinite and all-perfect Being.” In man’s moral and religious attributes the inferior animals do not participate, and this constitutes an immutable distinc- tion between him and them. In regard, however, to sensa-