CONSCIENCE IN ANIMALS. 85 



numerable states of lesser differentiation in which its existence was 

 presumably more and more bound up with that of those more primary- 

 social instincts from which it first derived its origin. To us con- 

 science means a massive consolidation of innumerable experiences, in- 

 herited and acquired, of remorse following one class of actions and 

 gratification their opposites ; and this massive body of experience has 

 reference to ideas of an abstraction so high as to extend far beyond 

 the individual, or even the community, which our actions primarily 

 affect. No wonder, therefore, that, when any course of action is being 

 contemplated, conscience asserts her voice within us as a voice of 

 supreme authority, commanding us to look beyond all immediate is- 

 sues, inclinations, and even sympathies, to those great principles of 

 action which the united experience of mankind has proved to be best 

 for the individual to follow in all his attempts to promote the hap- 

 piness or to alleviate the misery of his race. But with animals, of 

 course, the case is different. They start with a very small allowance 

 of hereditary experience in the respects we are considering ; they have 

 very few opportunities of adding to those experiences themselves ; they 

 probably have no powers of forming abstract ideas ; and so their 

 moral sense, rudimentary in its nature, can never be exercised with 

 reference to anything other than concrete objects relation, compan- 

 ion, or herd. 



We may now proceed to answer the question already propounded, 

 namely : Supposing Mr. Darwin's theory concerning the origin of the 

 moral sense to be true, where among animals should we expect to find 

 indications of such a sense ? I think reflection will show that the three 

 essential conditions to the presence of a moral sense are only complied 

 with among animals in the case of three groups namely, dogs, ele- 

 phants, and monkeys. I need not say anything about the intelligence 

 or the sociability of these animals, for it is proverbial that there are 

 no animals so intelligent or more social. It is necessary, however, to 

 say a few words about sympathy. 



In the case of dogs sympathy exists in an extraordinary degree. I 

 have myself seen the life of a terrier saved by another clog which 

 staid in the same house with him, and with which he had always 

 lived in a state of bitter enmity. Yet, when the terrier was one day 

 attacked by a large dog, which shook him by the back, and would 

 certainly have killed him, his habitual enemy rushed to the rescue, and, 

 after saving the terrier, had great difficulty in getting away himself. 



With regard to elephants, I may quote the well-known instance 

 from the " Descent of Man : " " Dr. Hooker informs me that an ele- 

 phant, which he was riding in India, became so deeply bogged that 

 he remained stuck fast until next day, when he was extracted by 

 means of ropes. Under such circumstances elephants seize with their 

 trunks any object, dead or alive, to place under their knees, to pre- 

 vent their sinking deeper in the mud ; and the driver was dreadfully 



