THE COMMON-SENSE VIEW 193 



gence,* feeling, and ingenuity displayed by the 

 non-human races are still lumped together by 

 belated psychologists under the head of ' instinct/ 

 by which is meant a blind, unconscious knack of 

 doing the right thing without in any way realising 

 what is being done or what it is being done for ! 

 The principle in accordance with which mind is 

 denied to non- human beings would, if carried to 

 its legitimate conclusions, make machines out of 

 all of us, and limit the possession of conscious 

 intelligence to the individual who promulgates 

 the theory. The attitude assumed by many 

 psychologists toward the mental faculties of 

 inferior races reminds one of Heine's interview 

 with the old lizard at Lucca. In the discussion 

 which ensued between the poet and the reptile, 

 the poet dropped the words, ' I think.' ' Think !' 

 snapped the lizard with a sharp, aristocratic tone 

 of profound contempt ' think ! Which of you 

 thinks ? For 3,000 years, wise sir, I have investi- 

 gated the spiritual functions of animals, and I 

 have made men and apes the special objects of 

 my study. I have devoted myself to these queer 

 creatures with as great zeal and diligence as 

 Lyonnet to his caterpillars. And as the result of 

 my researches, I can assure you no man thinks. 

 Now and then something occurs to him, and 

 these accidentally occurring somethings he calls 

 thoughts, and the stringing of them together he 

 calls thinking. But you can take my word for it, 

 no man thinks no philosopher thinks. And, so 

 far as philosophy is concerned, it is mere air and 



13 



