8 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE 
are reared, we may gauge the effect of the influence of 
the environment on the members of the little animal 
community. There are few more interesting problems 
than the relative power of animal tendency and of 
environment. The question as to what John Brown 
may become as the result of education, knowing the 
nature, and to some extent the strength of the qualities 
that were born in him, is of vital moment. But such a 
problem can be far more readily worked out for a dog 
than for a human being, because the nature of the dog 
and of its whole environment is simpler. Of late years 
much attention has been given to the study of the 
development of the infant from birth onward, and few 
psychologists would now doubt that the science of the 
mind has been put upon a sounder basis in consequence. 
It must be apparent that such investigations are of 
the highest importance to all those interested in educa- 
tion. If we are ever to arrive at scientific, and therefore 
sound methods of education, it must be by a study of 
the true nature of the mind of man, and surely this will 
be advanced by a careful investigation of the psychic life 
of simpler natures, that is to say, of the lower animals. 
Of course the higher in the scale the animal studied, the 
nearer we are approaching on the whole to man. I say 
upon the whole, for it does not follow that in all respects 
the monkey, for example, a creature of superior intelli- 
gence to the dog, is more like man. In docility, 
some dogs at all events, are far in advance of monkeys, 
and in this respect nearer to man. A monkey is often 
a most perverse creature, even when plainly possessed 
of considerable intelligence. Nevertheless, there is no 
denying that a large ape approaches the psychic status of 
man more nearly than the most intelligent dog. 
There are comparatively few people of intelligence in 
these days who would explain everything in the mental 
life of animals by instinct, But among those who 
