6 1 ON THE REASONING POWERS OF ANIMALS. 



of birds. INIonstrous and absurd as those stori°.s are, depend 

 upon it they overlie a stratum of truth ; for I cannot but 

 believe that a man may become so intimace with his pet 

 animal that he shall understand all the sounds it makes, 

 and that it also shall to some extent understand his speech. 



Again, if we see a creature acting consciously from a 

 motive, we believe it to be exercising reasoning faculties ; 

 in other words, whenever it perfonns an action, having a cer- 

 tain end in view, which shall be the result of that action, it 

 is doing so in consequence of a conclusion it has arrived at 

 by some process of reasoning. Now we certainly do see 

 animals sometimes performing actions in such a way that 

 we are morally confident they know what they are doing ; 

 and what conclusion can we draw in such a case ? The dog 

 whines at the door because he erpccls to be admitted ; he lies 

 on the hearth because he knows he will get warm. A very 

 eminent naturalist says that he once saw a species of wasp 

 seize a fly, cut off the abdomen, and then attempt to carry off 

 the body ; a breeze, however, acted on the wings of its prey, 

 twisting it round so that it could not proceed. Upon this the 

 wasp alighted, cut off the wings, and then flew away with the 

 fly. This was not instinct ; instinct is infallible, and would 

 have led the wasp to cut off the wings of all flies, but here it 

 accommodated itself to circumstances. It does not follow 

 from all th is that if they do reason, they are therefore conscious of 

 so doing. " Reasoning by induction is constantly practised by 

 the most ignorant clown, and by the most thoughtless school- 

 boy," and yet they do not know it. In our ordinary daily 

 affairs we do not go through a regular logical process every time 

 we act, but it is pretty certain that these actions result from an 

 argument, either gone through atthistimeunconsciously, or else 

 on some previous occasion, when the result has been stored 

 up in the memor)'. 



An animated discussion on the subject ensued, from which 

 it appeared that the majority of those present agreed with the 

 writer in the views he had enunciated. 



A Gold Coin, lately brought to light in the Warren, was 

 then shown, and a few remarks made thereon by the Rev. C. 

 L. Acland, who stated it to be one belonging to the Iceni ; 

 the circumstance of its being found in this neighbourhood, 

 was, therefore, a curious one. 



