54 LEISURE-TIME STUDIES. 



proved fact, the recognition of the fact could never lessen 

 by an iota our estimation of the immense superiority of 

 man, regarded as a thinking, intelligent being, over his 

 nearest allies. But such recognition would be by no means 

 synonymous with the admission that the gulf between the 

 human and animal type is impassable. Preconceived notions 

 and ideas might, and probably would, revolt against such an 

 idea of the origin of man's mind ; but the spirit of a liberal 

 science would content itself with the fact that no considera- 

 tions regarding its origin and development can detract from 

 the high superiority of the human over every other type and 

 form of nervous functions. 



As the Duke of Argyle remarks, in an interesting article 

 entitled " On Animal Instinct in its relation to the Mind 

 of Man" (Contemporary Review, July, 1875), " If it is 

 no contradiction in terms to speak of a machine which 

 has been made to feel, and to see, and to hear, and to 

 desire, neither need there be any contradiction in terms in 

 speaking of a machine which has been made to think and to 

 reflect and to reason. ... It seems to me that the very 

 fact of the question being raised whether man can be called 

 a machine in the same sense as that in which alone the 

 lower animals can properly be so described, is a proof that 

 the questioner believes the lower animals to be machines 

 in a sense in which it is not true. . . . The notion that, 

 because these (mental) powers depend on an organic 

 apparatus, they are therefore not what they seem to be, is a 

 mere confusion of thought. On the other hand, when this 

 comes to be thoroughly understood, the notion that man's 

 peculiar powers are lowered and dishonoured when they are 

 conceived to stand in any similar relation to the body, must 

 be equally abandoned, as partaking of the same fallacy." 



Turning next to inquire into the existence of automatic 

 or instinctive acts amongst animals, we may in the first 

 place be surprised to note that in the hydra, sensitive 

 although the polype is seen to be to outward impressions, 

 no traces of a nervous system, or of analogous organs, can 



