ANIMAL AND RATIONAL INTELLIGENCE 233 



\\ 7 hether the ape or the dog is to be preferred as the 

 higher in intelligence, may be doubted. Evidence 

 does not give a marked precedence to the ape. In 

 form, it conies nearest to man, and this fact favours 

 the hypothesis of later descent, and proportionate 

 superiority intellectually. Besides, his use of the 

 hand, in grasping things, gives him a marked 

 structural advantage over the dog or horse. He can 

 turn round an object, place it in different lights, and 

 receive from it more varied impressions. But there 

 are also numerous disadvantages. Thus, we have to 

 reckon with this consideration introduced by Darwin : 

 We should, however, bear in mind, that an animal 

 possessing great size, strength, and ferocity, and 

 which, like the gorilla, could defend itself from all 

 enemies, would not have perhaps become social ; 

 and this would most effectually have checked the 

 acquirement of the higher mental qualities, such as 

 sympathy and the love of his fellows. Hence it 

 might have been an immense advantage to man to 

 have sprung from some comparatively weak creature. 1 

 This reference directly concerns the higher mental 

 qualities essential to social life. Development of 

 social life, as distinct from gregarious life, implies 

 reflective exercise of that order special to man. The 

 absence of this in the ape, places him at a vast 

 disadvantage, as Darwin suggests. A large part of 

 the advantage for the dog under domestication, has 

 come through affection for his master. 



At this point appears the weakness of the reasoning 

 which would make the lower intelligence the source 

 of the higher. The many and immense differences 



1 Descent, p. 04. 



