COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY 25 



displeasure. When a child arrives at such a stage of 

 feeling, most persons would not be inclined to deny it 

 a moral nature and a very good one, too. We might 

 almost speak of a dog having a religion, with man 

 as his deity. But as a whole host of qualities 

 some of them difficult to classify go to make up 

 the character of the human individual so developed 

 and balanced as to deserve the epithet "gentleman," 

 so there are many qualities in the best specimens 

 of the canine race that we can practically appreciate 

 better than define. 



In all such discussions it must be borne in mind that 

 if we adopt the theory of organic evolution, we are 

 almost bound, of necessity, to a belief in the origin 

 and gradual development of mind from the faintest 

 glimmerings of consciousness, in the simplest proto- 

 plasmic creatures ; and that system will be most 

 philosophical and complete which can fill up the 

 gaps between the lowest manifestation of any quality 

 and the highest. Hence, many are inclined to believe 

 that the great distinction between man's faculties and 

 those of animals lower in the scale is difference in 

 degree and not in kind, certainly in so far as they 

 run parallel. Such a view does not prevent our 

 conceiving of additional forms of psychic activity not 

 represented in man as the possession of the brutes. 

 That such seems probable will appear when we discuss 

 some of the problems still demanding solution. Nor 

 does such a view imply that there may not be avenues 

 of knowledge of a special kind open to man which are 

 closed to those lower in the scale, such as a special 

 revelation from a higher source. So far as we see, 

 indeed, there are no theological difficulties any more 

 than with evolution as ordinarily applied to animal and 

 plant forms. 

 Man's present superiority over the lower animals is 



