Mental Processes in Animals. 371 



Scott " which he uses as a convenient object to keep the 

 lid of his play-box shut ; he opens the box, and cuts him- 

 self a slice of cake with his pocket-knife. Then he goes 

 to his tutor, who is teaching him about means and ends, 

 and their relation to each other. He is told that the 

 throwing of the stone was the means by which the death 

 of the bird, or the end, was to be accomplished ; that the 

 use of the knife was the means by which the end in view, 

 the severance of a piece of cake, was to be effected, and so 

 on. He is led to see that the employment of a great many 

 different things, differing in all sorts of ways stones, keys, 

 lexicons, and knives may be classified together as means ; 

 and that a great many various effects, the death of a bird 

 or the cutting a bit of cake, may be regarded as ends. He 

 is told that when he thinks of the means and the ends 

 together, as means and end, he will be thinking of their 

 relationship. And it is explained to him that means and 

 ends and their relationships are concepts, and involve the 

 exercise of his reasoning powers. 



Weary and sick to death of concepts and relationships 

 and reason, at length he escapes to the garden. Picking 

 up a light stick, he sweeps off the heads of some peculiarly 

 aggravating poppies, and determines to think no more of 

 means and ends, .continuing to use the stick meanwhile as 

 a most appropriate means to the end of decapitating the 

 poppies. By all which I mean to imply that there is a 

 great difference between selecting and using a tool for an 

 appropriate purpose, and possessing a conscious knowledge 

 of the relation between the means employed and the ends 

 attained. I do not think that any conception of means, 

 or end, or relationship is possible to the brute. But I 

 believe that the elephant can perceive that this stick will 

 serve to remove that leech. And if this is what Mr. 

 Romanes means by its possessing a conscious knowledge 

 of the relation between the means employed and the ends 

 attained, then I am, so far, at one with him in the inter- 

 pretation of the facts, though I disagree with his mode of 

 expressing them. 



