652 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



apt to ignore the psychological similarity. From experiments on the 

 brains of the lower animals we argue as to the nature of the brain 

 of man. Why not pursue the comparative method for the soul ? 



This condition of things can be traced to the influence of views 

 still surviving, unscientific, as we believe, as to man's origin and place 

 in the universe. At all events, such views exist and influence prac- 

 tically our treatment of the lower animals. Where man is concerned, 

 their rights are very seldom considered. The question is not raised 

 as to whose rights arf paramount, but it is tacitly assumed that when 

 man is involved the brutes have none. That such views have been up 

 to the present time operative to the neglect, and often the positive an- 

 noyance, if not the actual persecution and death of unoffending creat- 

 ures, will be perfectly plain to any one who will take the pains to ex- 

 amine into the case. 



If there is to be order in the universe, it must be conceded that 

 where respective interests clash in certain cases, that interest, and that 

 creature of less importance must give way to the one of greater im- 

 portance ; but man can never act righteously to his fellow-creatures 

 lower in the animal scale, till he recognizes that he is of them not 

 only in his body but in his mind ; in other words, that they are truly 

 fellows, or, as some one has expressed it, " poor relations." But let 

 this not be said in any pitying sense, for it can be most clearly shown 

 that in not a few respects not only are these "poor relations" equal 

 but superior to man. 



Physiologists have long been familiar with the higher development 

 of the senses in animals below man. There is not a single sense that 

 man possesses in which he is not excelled by some one animal, often 

 immeasurably. 



Many of the performances of the lower animals, if accomplished by 

 men, would be regarded as indications of the possession of marvelous 

 genius. In the brutes they are regarded as the outcome of "mere in- 

 stinct," by which is meant an endowment acting blindly and incapable 

 either of philosophic explanation or of modification. While the fact 

 seems to be that instincts, as they exist, are the result of inherited ex- 

 periences accumulated through considerable periods of time ; that they 

 may be modified, and are constantly being modified by new experi- 

 ences ; that they may be lost or replaced ; and much more that we 

 have still to learn. Many of the instincts of animals are so far re- 

 moved from any knowledge or faculty we possess that they are at 

 present inexplicable. But man must learn to say, "I don't know," 

 about a great many things still, instead of assuming the validity of 

 explanations which are not true solutions at all, but mere assumptions. 



And at this point allow me to indicate a danger that should make 

 u- cautious and modest in attempting to explain the behavior of ani- 

 mals. We infer from our fellow-man's behavior similarity of motive 

 and mental processes to our own under like circumstances. We find, 



