2O Studies in Animal Behavior 



is expressed in the title of an earlier treatise In- 

 stinctus brutorum existensis Del, eiusdemque sapien- 

 tissimi, indicem, issued in 1725. The wonderful 

 instincts of animals cannot be explained on the basis 

 of acquired habits ; they are innate endowments, per- 

 fectly adapted to secure the welfare of the individual 

 animal or its progeny, and hence an irrefragable tes- 

 timony to the wisdom and beneficence of the Crea- 

 tor. Reimarus was strongly influenced by Aristotle 

 and St. Thomas Aquinas. He is at great pains to 

 show that there is a fundamental difference between 

 instinct and reason, and that man alone has true 

 rationality. He concedes to the animals perceptions, 

 memory, volition and the ability to learn; but he de- 

 nies that they have abstract or general ideas or any 

 power of passing from one representation to an- 

 other. By numerous other writers animal instinct 

 came to be dwelt upon as affording some of the 

 most conclusive evidence of design. Paley dilates 

 upon it at length in his Natural Theology, and one 

 of the volumes of the Bridgewater treatises is de- 

 voted to this fruitful topic. 



Throughout human history there have been sev- 

 eral motives behind the various divergent opinions 

 that have been held in regard to animal psychology. 

 The impulse of the sympathetic lover of animals to 

 attribute to his dumb friends and dependents a gen- 

 erous meed of intelligence has always been a more 

 or less potent influence. And then there is the temp- 

 tation to tell as remarkable a tale as possible of the 



