ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE, AND HOW TO STUDY IT 16 



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 all 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 on 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. 

 Closest 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- 



