ANIMAL PSYCHOLOGY. 251 



It is one of the extraordinary features of this Divine 

 gift that it is capable of adaptation to so many, and 

 to such diversified organisms; and not less remarkable 

 that it should still reveal the fundamental similarities 

 of a common principle through all its ramifications, 

 so far as we are able to observe its manifestations. 

 Our knowledge of the lives of the higher animals is ex- 

 tremely limited, and founded upon observation alone; 

 while of the inferior species it is next to nothing. 

 The discussion of the subject of Animal Psychology 

 is, therefore, necessarily limited to the higher ani- 

 mals, and to such facts, with reference to these, as are 

 well authenticated and universally admitted. Any 

 argument which passes beyond the range of ascer- 

 tained facts is incapable of proving or disproving any 

 proposition. 



Neither is it desirable to perplex ourselves with the 

 question, whether or not the mutes possess a con- 

 science, or the moral sense. While a negative decla- 

 ration proves nothing, an affirmative assertion is 

 without support in existing knowledge. The prior 

 question, in point of time, is concerning their mental 

 endowments. 



It is equally unnecessary to discuss the grounds of 

 the artificial distinction which is made between the 

 appetites and passions on the one hand, and the intel- 

 lectual powers on the other. The concession of the 

 former to the mutes in common with mankind, and 

 the withholding of the latter as an independent and 

 distinguishing gift, is an assumption which tends to 

 mislead without advancing the true inquiry. The 

 passion of anger and the pain of hunger can only be 

 predicated of a mental principle, of which they are 



