We cannot formulate any process of
change whereby the lower state could pass on to or attain to the higher
in this respect.
[Footnote 1: We can of course follow the sort of mental development
which is traceable when we consider the origin of our own sagacious and
faithful dogs in the wild prairie dog: but this development is always in
contact with the mind of man, and is, as it were, the result of man's
action, as man's development in mind and soul is the result of God's
action.]
Therefore again we conclude that the higher reason is a gift _ab
externo_.
If we take a step further to the "spiritual" or "moral" faculties of
man, we have the same difficulty intensified, if indeed it does take a
new departure. To examine the question adequately would require us to go
into the deep waters of psychology; and here we should encounter many
matters regarding which there may be legitimate doubt and difference of
opinion, which would obscure and lead us away from our main line of
thought.
This I would willingly avoid. But it is quite intelligible, and touches
on no dangerous ground, when we assert that there is a distinct
ascent--an interval again raising developmental difficulties, directly
we pass from the intellectual to the moral. We may wonder at the high
degree of intelligence possessed by some animals; but we are unable to
conceive any animal possessing a power of abstract reasoning, having
ideas of beauty (as such), or of manifesting what we call the poetic
feeling.
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