The Scottish Naturalist. 333 



The absurdity, if there be any, certainly attaches itself to the 

 compiler, and neither to the donkey nor the historian of his 

 exploits. In truth, Incredulity regarding the truthfulness of such 

 incidents is usually in proportion to a man's ignorance of the 

 habits of animals and of the science of Comparative Psychology. 

 The man of cultivated intelligence and of generous sympathy 

 with all classes of his fellow-creatures, who has devoted much 

 time and trouble to the observation of animal character, be- 

 comes credulous of assertions concerning their mental or moral 

 capacities to a degree that ignorant, unsympathetic men cannot 

 appreciate — simply because these students of Comparative 

 Psychology havc^ verified abundantly, by means of their own 

 senses and reason, the correctness of the adage that represents 

 Truth as " stranger than Fiction." The credulity of the Com- 

 parative Psychologist merely leads him, however, to regard an 

 incident as possible or probable ; not to accept it as a Fact 

 until he is furnished with proper Evidence. Caution and 

 Credulity co-exist in his highly trained mind ; and both of them 

 are necessary — the one checking or supplementing the other — 

 to the proper prosecution of his studies. 



The whole subject of so-called Incredible — but yet true — 

 Stories of Animal Intelligence is so interesting and important 

 that I hope fully to discuss it on some future occasion. 



Our author obviously regards himself as more than a match 

 for the great Evolutionists of these times — Darwin, Huxley, 

 Wallace, Spencer. He has no hesitation in ascribing all the 

 feats, tricks, or performances of other animals than man to 

 Instinct or Automatism ; and yet, as if " convinced against his 

 will," he makes occasional, most unfortunate and perplexing use 

 of the term Intelligence. For instance, with delicious incon- 

 sistency in a professed scientific critic — even on the very same 

 page (p. 310), he makes use of the following contradictory ex- 

 pressions : " There is no animal so low in the scale of Intelli- 

 gence* as to be unable to provide for its own safety;" and "The 

 Instinct in animals is unerring in the use of means for self- 

 preservation" ! What is the relation of Instinct to Intelligence 

 is evidently a puzzle to him — as it has for ages been a problem 

 to other philosophers — genuine or would-be. And, like so many 

 others, he appears to have cut the Gordian knot, simply by the 

 lazy, stupid, old practice of calling all Intelligence in other animals 



* He also describes the Chinchilla as "very low in the scale as regards 

 Intelligence" (p. 334). 



