PEEFACE. 



THERE are many books in our language which deal with 

 Animal Intelligence in an anecdotal and conventionally 

 popular manner. There are a few, notably those by Mr. 

 Eomanes and Mr. Mivart, which bring adequate knowledge 

 and training to bear on a subject of unusual difficulty. In 

 the following pages I have endeavoured to contribute some- 

 thing (imperfect, as I know full well, but the result of 

 several years' study and thought) to our deeper knowledge 

 of those mental processes which we may fairly infer from 

 the activities of dumb animals. 



The consideration of Animal Intelligence, from the 

 scientific and philosophical standpoint, has been my 

 primary aim. But so inextricably intertwined is the 

 subject of Intelligence with the subject of Life, the subject 

 of organic evolution with the subject of mental evolution, 

 so closely are questions of Heredity and Natural Selection 

 interwoven with questions of Habit and Instinct, that I have 

 devoted the first part of this volume to a consideration 

 of Organic Evolution. The great importance and value 

 of Professor Weismann's recent contributions to biological 

 science, and their direct bearing on questions of Instinct,, 

 rendered such treatment of my subject, not only advisable, 

 but necessary. Moreover, it seemed to me, and to those 

 whom I consulted in the matter, that a general work on 

 Animal Life and Intelligence, if adequately knit into a 

 connected whole, and based on sound principles of science 



