9 



The Scottish Naturalist. 63 



kindness, and he learns to distinguish right and wrong within 

 the range of his capabilities. Abstract right and wrong he cannot 

 reason upon ; but right and wrong, so far as his master has 

 taught him and he has learned, are known and acted on. He 

 makes selection. He makes selection with approval, for when 

 he does right he is satisfied, when wrong afraid. This know- 

 ledge becomes hereditary, selection with approval becoming 

 more and more easy, wrong selection causing deeper dis- 

 satisfaction or increased terror, as the fact of wrong becomes 

 more and more clear to the creature's mind. Conscience has 

 become more sensitive. The dog (many other animals come 

 under the same category) is then capable of being trained to a 

 sense of responsibility to his master, whom he knows, fears and 

 loves. Man is capable of being trained to know, fear and love 

 an unseen Being as his Master." 



" A recent writer says : — " We identify conscience with the re- 

 mains of the Pneunm in fallen man. The Pneuma and Psyche y 

 spirit and mind, are thus distinguished and separated ; the 

 former the Divine breath ; the latter, reason. The one is 

 peculiar to man, the other is not denied to the lower animals, 

 or at least only by those who fear to acknowledge any relation- 

 ship between the 'Lord of Creation' and the inferior creatures." 



If we are right, this view is wrong, for we hold that conscience 

 does exist in the lower animals. They have conscience towards 

 the higher creature man, and also conscience towards each 

 other. Observation shows that many creatures of the same 

 species, and not a few of different species, perform kind actions 

 towards other creatures ; actions which are not performed by all 

 individuals of the species to which they belong. These actions 

 indicate clearly choice of one kind of action rather than another, 

 this choice made with a consciousness of using means to accom- 

 plish an end, that end being the safety and happiness of a 

 fellow. In what do such actions differ from those of like kind 

 performed by man towards man? There is conscience or 

 choice with approval in both cases. So far as we can see, there 

 is self-consciousness in the brute as well as in man : the difference 

 is one of degree, not of kind. We hold then that conscience is 

 a quality inherent in all living beings possessing a brain suffi- 

 ciently developed to enable them to remember and reason on 

 facts ; which quality enables the creature possessing it to choose 

 a course of action with approval." 



In giving expression to the foregoing opinions regarding the 



