ZOOLOGY. 365 



but its steps have never been marked out, though many materials have been 

 collected in regard to the subject. In the effort to attain a method of study- 

 ing this part of the science of nature, the following considerations have 

 occurred to me. 



AY"e know the condition of a man's soul, or of its representative in an ani- 

 mal, only by external manifestations. Thus, in order to have a standard of 

 comparison for the different degrees of psychical development of animals, 

 we may start from an analysis of what is called the characteristic of animals, 

 in opposition to plants, namely, voluntary motion. 



In considering closely the motions of a dog, we recognize in them two 

 entirely different kinds. One, and that by far the most common, serves only 

 and immediately the animal itself as the means by which to obtain whatever 

 it desires and enjoys (food, for instance), and to shun whatever it dislikes. 

 This kind of motions we may call subjective; that is, selfish motions; 

 because they serve only the subject itself. But again, we see another kind 

 of motions. Thus, the dog plays with other dogs, with other animals, and 

 with man. It makes many movements with the head, eyes, ears, and tail, 

 which serve no other purpose than to show to other animals, or to man, the 

 present condition of its inner nature; to show them what it feels, what it 

 thinks, and what it seeks. These motions are not subjective; they are made 

 in relation to the inner natures of others, and therefore may be properly 

 called sympathetic motions. Which of these two kinds of motions is the 

 higher? Undoubtedly the latter. All animals have the first; the second are 

 not common to all. Does an hermaphrodite worm, for instance, know that 

 another being lives and feels? If not, it has no sympathetic motions. 



Having considered how to view the motions of an animal, let us return to 

 our problem, namely, to find a standard for the comparison of the different 

 degrees in which, in the series of animals, the mental constitution is devel- 

 oped ; and to show that the greater or less degree of development of the sym- 

 pathetic motions in an animal, and of its organs to perform them, exhibits, 

 at the same time, the degree of its psychical development. That such is the 

 case is because no degree of this development, beyond eating and drinking, 

 can possibly exist, except in society with, and in regard to, fellow-beings. 

 All those animals of higher mental organization, are social animals, or, at 

 least, are connected by certain psychical relations, with other animals. 

 Thus, among insects, the hymenoptera rank psychically very high. The 

 greater part of them live in communities; that is to say, each individual 

 lives and cares not only for itself, but also for its fellow-citizens. It knows 

 that it belongs to a certain community, has certain duties there, etc ; and 

 whenever we admire the sagacity of a bee or an ant, it is its working and 

 thinking in relation to other beings that we admire Moreover, only animals 

 which are social by their nature can be domesticated, that is, made friendly 

 to man. Man himself becomes human only when in society with fellow-men. 

 Children lost in forests when young, growing .up there, resemble beasts. 

 The higher the civilization of men, the closer and more complicated are the 

 relations between them Now, if this be so; if the social life is the only field 

 where, in men or in animals, a higher growth of the spirit is possible; and if 

 with man the social life is far more developed than with any other member 

 of the animal kingdom, we may draw our final conclusion, namely, that we 

 can determine the psychical rank of any animal, from a knowledge of the 

 degree of its ability to manifest itself to its fellow-beings, or, what is the 

 same thing, of its organs for sympathetic motions. 



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