ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE, AND HOW TO STUDY IT 15 
the case of the genius) and the lower animals which 
are insusceptible of solution. 
I have always thought that this gratuitous assumption 
of inferiority in a// respects of the lower animals was 
an evidence not only of man’s unbounded conceit, but 
is further evidence that he had not even realised the 
nature of the problems to be solved. 
The more I study the subject myself, the more do I 
hesitate to adopt outright the explanations already 
given by those who have written ou the subject. 
I think we have of late made rapid progress, but 
there is still great need of observation and experiment 
without bias, All may gain in modesty and in 
knowledge who will in the right way study animal 
intelligence. Few people have the qualifications of 
long and intimate association with animals, by habit of 
personal introspection, etc., etc., to work out the deeper 
problems, but we may hope that the number will 
increase rapidly in the years to come. 
To sum up then, somewhat imperfectly, it would 
appear that all human beings, whether civilised or 
savage, naturally have an interest in animals because, 
consciously or unconsciously, they assume that they 
resemble themselves psychically. Possibly the fact 
that savages seem the better to understand animals in 
some respects is owing to their being able the more 
readily to place themselves on their psychic plane. 
Closet comparative psychology cannot hope to 
accomplish much. He who would understand animals 
thoroughly must live among them, endeavour to think 
as they think, and feel as they feel, and this at every 
stage of their development. Observation, experiment 
and introspection are all essential to the student of 
comparative psychology, but we must recognise that 
there may be problems in both human and comparative 
psychology that so far, at all events, as certain indi- 
