ANIMAL PSYCHOLOGY. 271 



ory and imagination. Too little is known of the lives 

 of animals to show whether they possess this quality 

 in any sensible degree. 



VI. The Will. A doubt has been entertained whether 

 the mutes possess a will, like the will of man, because 

 responsibility must follow its exercise. Their own 

 lives, at least, are intrusted to their keeping, the pres- 

 ervation of which is the highest form of responsibility. 

 With a free volition, they rise up or lie down; they 

 go or come; they play or quarrel, they bark, or mew, 

 or sing; and they lie in wait for prey, or seek it by 

 long excursions. These several acts are performed 

 under the influence of motives, and were preceded by 

 an exercise of the will. Unless the mute has a free 

 choice between alternative courses, one of which may 

 lead to danger and the other to safety, his conduct 

 ^vould be unintelligent. He might lose his life at any 

 moment. The will is that mental power that sets 

 the body in motion to execute a resolution previously 

 reached by a process of reasoning. It is the power 

 which adopts and executes the conclusions of the 

 judgment. Unless a difference can be discovered in 

 the quality of the will, as displayed by the mutes and 

 by mankind, there is no means of distinguishing one 

 from the other, except in the degree of its strength 

 and persistency. A will, also, presupposes the exist- 

 ence of a mental principle, of which alone it can be 

 predicated. 



VII. Ajypetites and Passions. The mutes have the 

 appetites and passions in common wath mankind. No 

 difficulty has ever been found in conceding a commu- 

 nity of characteristics in these, the inferior, manifest- 

 ations of the mental principle. While they differ in 



