ANIMAL AND RATIONAL INTELLIGENCE 215 



animals may encounter in fulfilling our wishes, there 

 is for us no difficulty in distinguishing between 

 observations and reflections. The characteristics of a 

 higher life are found when, passing beyond interpreta 

 tion of signs for guidance of action, we seek knowledge 

 for the sake of knowledge. It is in this latter sphere 

 we find the gateway to literature, art, science, and 

 philosophy. These names, indicative of the vast 

 region of rational activity into which man passes, 

 are sufficient to warrant the induction that a power 

 is working here, greatly superior to any power seen 

 operating in the higher mammals. 



A large body of evidence sustaining this conclusion 

 as to the inferiority of animals, is accessible in the 

 results obtained by their training. Apart from human 

 guidance, animal activity is directed mainly by 

 sensory experience, comparatively little appearing to 

 warrant the conclusion that intelligence is a regu 

 lative power. Still less do we find indications that 

 intelligence is an originating power, to which animal 

 progress can be traced. There is nothing in the 

 records of natural history to warrant the conclusion 

 that any of the higher mammals make any marked 

 advance in adaptation of means to ends. Neither is 

 any animal observed to seek knowledge for its own 

 sake. In most cases, when sensory experience is 

 unaffected by contact with an object, interest in it 

 disappears. The curiosity of monkeys awakens 

 some expectation, as if giving promise of inquiry; but, 

 when carefully watched, it comes to an end, just as 

 the application of smell by the dog and horse does, 

 though the time occupied with the object is longer 

 in the case of the monkey, on account of the wider 



