PROGRESS OF PSYCHOLOGY. 467 



could have been no science at all ; we usually admit 

 its existence in the higher animals, like birds and 

 mammals, partly because it seems the simplest postu- 

 late that will cover the facts, and partly from our 

 general acceptance of the idea of evolution; but as 

 we descend to ants and bees, earthworms and jelly- 

 fishes, the impression of automatism grows upon us, 

 we are without any criterion that will enable us to 

 decide as to the presence or absence of conscious con- 

 trol or intelligence or the like, and in particular cases 

 it is often a matter of opinion whether the behaviour 

 of the animal requires psychical terms at all for its 

 re-description. 



If we adhere to the law of parcimony, we must 

 seek to interpret as reflexes as much of animal be- 

 haviour as will bear this interpretation, but no 

 amount of success in so doing can prove the absence 

 of consciousness. Furthermore, when we reflect that 

 it often requires close acquaintance to discover intel- 

 ligence in the behaviour of our fellow-men, — whose 

 actions are often complex reflexes or automatic — we 

 are induced to be cautious in our inferences as to 

 animals. Especially with subjects like ants and bees, 

 we feel the difficulty of getting sufficiently near them 

 to detect the individual peculiarities of behaviour in 

 which intelligence may reveal itself. 



Our opinion at present is that since a number of 

 lower animals give evidence of memory for local- 

 ities, for sounds, for particular kinds of food, etc. ; 

 since others show some power of profiting by experi- 

 ence, or of educability; since others seem able to 

 depart from the usual responses of their reflexes when 

 novel circumstances demand a departure from rou- 

 tine, and so on, we cannot give even a descriptive 

 account of their behaviour without introducing psy- 



