126 Chapter VII. 



convenient manner with essential differences that act- 

 ually exist. Yet more than a hundred years ago we 

 were warned by no less an authority than Reimarus, not 

 to take mere similarities between different things for 

 differences in degree of one and the same thing. It 

 might be well, therefore, to draw the attention of mod- 

 ern writers on the psychic life of animals once more to 

 15, 1 6, 122 and 123 of Reimarus' "Allegemeine 

 Betrachtungen," a work of undoubted psychological 

 merit. We have shown in detail that human and animal 

 intelligence are not identical in their nature, but merely 

 analogous, and that consequently no difference in degree 

 can exist between them. We have proved that any in- 

 telligence, even the lowest, which is essentially identical 

 with that of man, necessarily implies the power of 

 formal conclusion. Consequently any intelligence in 

 animals, even the lowest, must include " ratiocinations' 

 similar to the human," i. e. formal judgments and gen- 

 eral concepts. Therefore, he who wishes to ascribe in- 

 telligence to animals, ought not to forget the exact 

 meaning of the term, and should not claim intelligence 

 for them and deny it in the same breath. 



Of greater importance is another objection ad- 

 vanced by Mr. Smalian. (It is likewise borrowed from 

 Ziegler, and was also mentioned by Forel in a somewhat 

 different form). It is the following: Ants are so dif- 

 ferent from higher mammals and from man in their 

 whole organization, and, especially, in the structure of 

 their nervous system, that their psychic faculties cannot 

 be compared with those of the latter. 



These words can be taken in a twofold sense. Let 

 us try to distinguish between their legitimate and their 

 wrong meaning. 



