CHAP. VII.] THE BRUTE. 207 



of Coburg-Gotha, aided in an attack with fire-arms on a troop of 

 baboons in the pass of Meusa in Abyssinia. The baboons in return 

 rolled so many stones down the mountain, some as large as a man s 

 head, that the attackers had to beat a retreat; and the pass was 

 actually for a time closed against the caravan. It deserves notice that 

 these baboons thus acted in concert.&quot; Vol. i. p. 51. 



Now, if every statement of fact here given be absolutely 

 correct, it in no way even tends to invalidate the distinction 

 we have drawn between &quot; instinct &quot; and &quot; reason ;&quot; but the 

 positive assertion that the brutes &quot; acted in concert,&quot; when 

 the evidence proves nothing more than that their actions 

 were simultaneous, shows a strong bias on the part of the 

 narrator. A flock of sheep will simultaneously turn round 

 and stare and stamp at an intruder ; but this is not &quot; con 

 certed action,&quot; which means that actions are not only simul 

 taneous, but are so in consequence of a reciprocal under 

 standing and convention between the various agents. It 

 may be added that if any brutes were capable of such really 

 concerted action, the effects would soon make themselves 

 known to us so forcibly as to prevent the possibility of 

 mistake. 



Mr. Darwin even permits himself to indulge in such 

 remarks as the following. He says :* &quot; But can we feel sure 

 that an old dog with an excellent memory and some power 

 of imagination, as shown by his dreams, never reflects on 

 his past pleasures in the chase ? and this would be a form 

 of self-consciousness. On the other hand, Buclmer has re 

 marked, how little can the hard-worked wife of a degraded 

 Australian savage, who uses hardly any abstract words [ !] 

 and cannot count above four, exert her self-consciousness, or 

 reflect on the nature of her own existence.&quot; 



The consequences of accepting facts which have no evi 

 dence in their favour and many against them, merely be 

 cause we cannot feel sure that they are not true, would be 

 alarming indeed. Here, however, for the reasons before 



* Descent of Mun, vol. ii. p. 109. 



