The Puma 279 



Evolved structures, functions, and qualities in groups, 

 v^rill be similar; for animals of all kinds must resemble 

 their direct progenitors ; but individuality is not extin- 

 guished, and as the race rises in capacity, or its members 

 vary from an average, personal traits become salient, and 

 those dissimilarities produced by alterations in the process 

 by which existence is maintained, appear more prominently. 



Almost the entire body of emotions which Gato possessed 

 as a beast of prey, as well as his moral and intellectual 

 traits, were beyond the reach of any modifications that 

 could be made artificially. He was morose, cruel, treacher- 

 ous, and blood-thirsty ; but, it does not follow that he was 

 absolutely so, or that, when compared with other pumas, 

 these characteristics of his species were equally pronounced. 

 Observation enables the writer to say that this animal was 

 more intelligent, tractable, responsive, and reliable than 

 any other beast of the same kind with which he ever was 

 brought into close association. 



A direct parallel between men, even barbarous men, and 

 brutes will always fail. We do not know enough of the 

 mental organization of either even to apply terms justly; 

 and more than this, the difference between them in develop- 

 mental states is so great that while the phenomena of both 

 are of the same order, and the language used in describing 

 one is applicable to the other, there are not close enough 

 likenesses between them to make comparisons possible. 

 Those who have attempted to frame psychological schemes, 

 vitiated their work for the most part by a false method, or 

 invalidated the conclusions arrived at, in consequence of 

 preconceptions which biassed the temper in which evidence 



