FUNDAMENTAL RELATIONS OF ANIMALS 131 



matter of historical record (Cassar dictating several letters at the 

 same time), though they exhibit only the capacity of passing rapidly, 

 in quick succession, from one topic to another, while keeping the 

 connecting thread of several parallel thoughts: if all this is only 

 possible for the highest intellectual powers, shall we by any false 

 argumentation allow ourselves to deny the intervention of a Supreme 

 Intellect in calling into existence combinations in nature, by the side 

 of which all human conceptions are child's play? 



If I have succeeded, even very imperfectly, in showing that the 

 various relations observed between animals and the physical world, 

 as well as between themselves, exhibit thought, it follows that the 

 whole has an Intelligent Author; and it may not be out of place to 

 attempt to point out, as far as possible, the difference there may 

 be between Divine thinking and human thought. 



Taking nature as exhibiting thought for my guide, it appears to 

 me that while human thought is consecutive. Divine thought is 

 simultaneous, embracing at the same time and forever, in the past, 

 the present, and the future, the most diversified relations among 

 hundreds of thousands of organized beings, each of which may 

 present complications again, which, to study and understand even 

 imperfectly, as for instance, Man himself, Mankind has already spent 

 thousands of years. And yet, all this has been done by one Mind, 

 must be the work of one Mind only, of Him before whom Man 

 can only bow in grateful acknowledgment of the prerogatives he is 

 allowed to enjoy in this world, not to speak of the promises of a 

 future life. 



I have intentionally dismissed many points in my argument with 

 mere questions, in order not to extend unduly a discussion which is 

 after all only accessory to the plan of my work. I have felt justified 

 in doing so because, from the point of view under which my subject 

 is treated, those questions find a natural solution which must present 

 itself to every reader. We know what the intellect of Man may 

 originate, we know its creative power, its power of combination, of 

 foresight, of analysis, of concentration; we are, therefore, prepared 

 to recognize a similar action emanating from a Supreme Intelligence 

 to a boundless extent. We need therefore not even attempt to show 

 that such an Intellect may have originated all the Universe contains; 

 it is enough to demonstrate that the constitution of the physical 



