162 Chapter VIII. 



man and the higher animals is much less, and the sense 

 organs of both are of similar structure. The senses of 

 sight and hearing are, above all, most serviceable in the 

 training of animals. Even Aristotle 1 ' observed that 

 only those animals can be trained that are gifted with 

 hearing, because they alone learn to obey the voice of 

 man. 



Let us suppose that man were a being of the same 

 size and form as an ant, and were equipped with the 

 necessary sense organs, above all with a genuine pair of 

 ant-feelers, but still possessed his intelligence, whilst 

 the ants were endowed solely with the powers of sensile 

 cognition and appetite. It would be much easier for 

 this miniature man-ant to enter into communication 

 with the genuine species and train them to his purposes. 

 For if we consider that real ants, despite their want of 

 intelligence, and guided only by individual sensitive 

 experiences, recognize in certain species of beetles, as 

 Atemeles, Lomechusa, Claviger, etc., genuine guests and 

 agreeable associates, although these beetles belong to 

 a totally different order of insects, it can hardly be de- 

 nied that an intelligent man-ant of their own size, their 

 senses and organs of communication, woufd in all prob- 

 ability succeed far better in training them than is actu- 

 ally the case. This whimsical fiction shows at least this 

 much, that the greater facility of training higher ani- 

 mals cannot be attributed to an essentially superior na- 

 ture of their psychic faculties. 



We have previously examined in different chapters 

 of this essay the psychological import of the training of 



Metaphys. lib. 1, c. 1. 



