2 MENTAL QUALITIES OF THE HORSE. 



according as there has been, respectively, one or two 

 engaged in its reproduction ; and that those beings which 

 are best fitted to their surroundings are the most likely 

 to survive in the struggle for existence. Thus, as we 

 ascend the scale of life, we find that the nervous system, 

 in becoming developed, endows the animal with many 

 faculties. Consciousness, memory, and instincts appear 

 early ; but the power of drawing conclusions latest of all. 

 As all these faculties, instinctive as well as intellectual, 

 are, as far as we can find out, manifestations of the nervous 

 system, it may not be unreasonable to regard what is 

 called mind and the nervous system as one and the same 

 thing. Degree of development seems to be the only 

 difference between the mind of man and that of brutes. 



CONSCIOUSNESS, IDEAS, MEMORY, HABIT, AND INSTINCT. 



Many of the actions of animals are performed in direct 

 response to stimuli applied to sensory nerves (those of 

 feeling, seeing, hearing, tasting, and smelling), as, for in- 

 stance, when we draw our hand back in the event of one 

 of our fingers being accidentally pricked, or when we 

 blink our eyes on some unexpected object suddenly ap- 

 proaching them. These automatic movements may be 

 comparatively simple, such as the two I have just cited ; 

 or complex, as when the touch, smell, and no doubt sight, 

 of its dam's teat stimulate the newly-dropped foal to 

 suck, or when a sleeping man brushes off a fly which is 

 irritating the nerves of the skin of his face. As consciousness 

 plays no part in automatic actions, we may infer that if 

 the actions of any animal were wholly automatic, such 

 animal would be devoid of consciousness ; in fact, it would 

 be an unconscious automaton. We know from observation 

 that in all the higher animals, actions which at first were 

 automatic, become in many cases largely modified by 



