Animal Psychology, the Old and the New 13 



tures of animals to the uses to which they are put, 

 and upon the inborn proclivities of animals for using 

 their parts in the proper way. Just as the muse 

 incites the poet, so do the innate impulses of ani- 

 mals lead them, without instruction, to perform the 

 acts needful for their life. Similar views were ex- 

 pressed in the writings of Cicero, (De Natura De- 

 orum). Seneca wrote in much the same vein: 

 "What practice teaches is slowly acquired and is 

 made after many patterns; what nature teaches, that 

 is the same for all, and, as soon as there, it takes 

 place without reflection." "Nature teaches nothing 

 but self-preservation and the knowledge necessary 

 for this end." 



During the Christian era there were few recorded 

 observations or speculations on animal psychology 

 before the Renaissance. Interest was centered mainly 

 in man, and especially in things affecting the wel- 

 fare of his soul, and most of the attention that was 

 bestowed on the mental life of animals was owing 

 chiefly to the bearing of the subject upon theologi- 

 cal teachings. The church emphasized the inferior- 

 ity of the brute creation and taught that it was 

 brought into existence solely for the service of man, 

 although this doctrine was sometimes qualified by 

 the admission that certain noxious creatures might 

 have been produced by the devil, or came into ex- 

 istence as a consequence of the Fall. 



The conception of instinct which had assumed 

 more or less definite outlines among Roman authors 



