48 ANGLERS' EVENINGS. 



dictory results sometimes attained, Dr. Spottiswoode 

 says : — 



" Suppose that we are gravely told that all circles pass through the 

 same two imaginary points at an infinite distance, and that every line 

 drawn through one of these points is perpendicular to itself. On hearing 

 the statement we shall probably whisper, with a smile or a sigh, that we 

 hope it is not true ; but that in any case it is a long way off, and perhaps, 

 after all, it does not very much signify * * * * Omitting details as 

 unsuited to the present occasion, it will, I think, be sufficient to point out 

 in general terms that a solution of the difficulty is to be found in the fact 

 that the formulas which give rise to these results are more comprehensive 

 than the signification assigned to them ; and when we pass out of the 

 condition of things first contemplated, they cannot (as it is obvious that they 

 ought not) give us any results intelligible on that basis. But it does not, 

 therefore, by any means follow that upon a more enlarged basis the formulce 

 are incapable of interpretation ; on the contrary, the difficulty at which we 

 have arrived indicates that there must be some more comprehensive statement 

 of the problem which will include cases impossible in the more limited, but 

 possible in the wider view of the subject." 



I venture to submit that in regard to the phenomena 

 of inteUigence in the lower animals, it is possible that we 

 require an enlarged basis, a more comprehensive interpre- 

 tation of the formulae we use. Those profound observers, 

 the Ancients, had a way of getting out of difficulties of 

 this kind by provisionally relegating them to the super- 

 natural. The origin of such a doctrine as that of the 

 transmigration of souls may be fairly held to indicate 

 their recognition of the inadequacy of the significations 

 attached to their formulae, and at the same time their 

 wondering consciousness of the association of manifesta- 

 tions of intelligence with the most varied forms of life. 



But let us descend from these transcendental consi- 

 derations and direct our attention for a little to some of 



