142 Chapter VII. 



size of the ant does not justify us in applying a dif- 

 ferent standard to her psychic faculties. Nor does the 

 anatomical difference of sense organs or nervous sys- 

 tems in dogs and ants entitle us to do so ; for the gist of 

 the question in estimating the psychic import of an ani- 

 mal's action is not so much which organic instruments 

 are called into play, as rather how they are employed. 



Smalian quotes a sentence from Darwin's "Origin of 

 Species," 1 in which this author sketches the difference 

 between the psychic activities of ants and those of man : 

 "Ants work by inherited instincts and by inherited or- 

 gans or tools, whilst man works by acquired knowledge 

 and manufactured instruments/' And Smalian con- 

 tinues : "This difference cannot be emphasized too much : 

 the activities adapted to the preservation of an ant- 

 colony result from necessity, those of man, however, 

 from free will." These are very gratifying and correct 

 concessions. But we call attention to the fact that they 

 reach much further than Darwin, Ziegler and Smalian 

 are inclined to think. For the very same difference 

 which raises a psychological barrier between ants and 

 man, necessarily distinguishes dogs and monkeys from 

 the human species. They, too, work only with their in- 

 stincts, with natural organs and instruments ; no dog or 

 monkey ever works with an artificially manufactured 

 implement. Ants, as well as higher vertebrates, are able 

 to employ acquired individual sense perceptions in order 

 to perfect their natural instincts, and many instances will 

 be adduced in my last chapter in support of this plea. 

 Let one instance suffice for the present. I had a nest of 

 Formica sanguinea under observation, and kept it for 



L ) "Origin of Species," p. 362, 1, 6 and last English edition. 



