The Descent of Man 39 



normal retrieving process, such as occurred in the cases cited, 

 would probably be sufficient to revive that old tendency and 

 call the obsolete habit into exercise. 



But perhaps the most surprising instance of groundless 

 inference is presented in the following passage : — 



* My dog, a full-grown and very sensible animal, was lying on the 

 lawn during a hot and still day; but at a little distance a slight 

 breeze occasionally moved an open parasol, which would have been 

 wholly disregarded by the dog had any one stood near it. As it was, 

 every time that the parasol slightly moved, the dog growled fiercely 

 and barked. He must, I think, have reasoned to himself in a rapid 

 and unconscious manner, that movement without any apparent cause 

 indicated the presence of some strange living agent, and no stranger 

 had a right to be on his territory.' — Vol. i. p. 67. 



The consequences deduced from this trivial incident are 

 amazing. Probably, however, Mr. Darwin does not mean 

 what he says ; but, on the face of it, we have a brute credited 

 with the abstract ideas ' movement,' ' causation,' and the 

 notions logically arranged and classified in subordinate 

 genera — 'agent,' 'living agent,' 'strange living agent.' He 

 also attributes to it the notion of ' a right ' of ' territorial 

 limitation,' and the relation of such ' limited territory ' and 

 ' personal ownership.' It may safely be affirmed that if a dog 

 could so reason in one instance he would in others, and 

 would give much more unequivocal proofs for Mr. Darwin to 

 bring forward. 



Mr. Darwin, however, speaks of reasoning in an ' uncon- 

 scious manner,' so that he cannot really mean any process of 

 reasoning at all ; but, if so, his case is in no way apposite. 

 Even an insect can be startled, and will exhibit as much 

 evidence of rationality as is afforded by the growl of a dog ; 

 and all that is really necessary to explain such a pheno- 

 menon exists in an oyster, or even in the much talked-of 

 Ascidian. 



Thus, then, it appears that, even in Mr. Darwin's 



