86 THE ORIGIN OF HUMAN REASON. 



the presence of his master, who had called him and was 

 kindly noticing him ? 



Still more curious is the tale told about an American 

 monkey which had found out the way to unscrew the 

 handle of that object which is often so much too easily 

 unscrewed, namely, a hearth-brush. He delighted in 

 screwing it on and off, and soon began to unscrew all 

 the unscrewable articles within his reach, so as to 

 become a nuisance to the household. This, we are 

 told,* showed that the monkey had "discovered the 

 mechanical principle of the screw" — an "intelligent 

 recognition of a principle discovered by the most 

 unwearying perseverance in the way of experiment " (!). 

 To do what it did, needed as little the "intelligent 

 recognition of a principle " as any white mouse which 

 had learnt to turn rotating objects, or, as a canary, 

 which had learnt to pull up a small vessel of water 

 suspended by a thread, need apprehend " principles " 

 of mechanics and hydrostatics. We are told that the 

 monkey, "however often he was disappointed at the 

 beginning [of the screwing process], never was induced 

 to try turning the handle the other way ; he always 

 screwed from right to left." This would seem to show 

 (on Mr. Romanes's method of interpretation) that the 

 monkey had much greater intelligence than is possessed 

 by many human beings, who often do try screwing the 

 wrong way, when their efforts to screw the right way have 

 not succeeded. The misleading language into which Mr. 

 Romanes allows himself to be betrayed by his credulous 

 enthusiasm about his monkey is far more remarkable 



* p. 6i. 



