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 



