REASON AND LANGUAGE. 133 



with it, though it may possess such feelings. We have 

 not the least objection to suppose it does possess them. 

 But if it has them that does not prevent the action 

 being a radically different one from the pointing of 

 man — it does not make it a " sign." * All persons 

 interested in these questions have probably read or 

 heard of the card tricks of Sir John Lubbock's dogs. 

 They have really no novel significance, and are funda- 

 mentally but what " Toby the learned pig " did in the 

 days of our early childhood. 



The anecdote of the cat who got help for a parrot 

 up to its knees in dough; those of cats jumping on chairs, 

 etc., are interesting, but not in the least inconsistent with 

 our view of animal faculties being distinct in kind from 

 those of man. We have ourselves elsewhere furnished 

 anecdotes of the same kind.f 



But the small value of the many marvellous tales 

 told us about "animal intelligence," the credulity of 

 observers or narrators, and Mr. Romanes's own need of 

 a keener critical faculty, may all, we think, be made 

 clear to readers of ordinary impartiality and intelligence 

 by the following citations. 



Mr. Romanes says,:j: "Concerning the use of ges- 

 ture-signs by monkeys, I give the remarkable case 

 recorded by James Forbes, F.R.S., of a male monkey 

 begging the body of a female which had just been shot. 



* As to this and other feelings of relation, see " On Truth," 

 pp. 188-200, and 344-356. 



t See " The Cat " (John Murray), p. 367. Animals which from 

 past sense-experiences have associated feelings of relief with the 

 presence of a certain person, may be thus led to seek the presence 

 of such a person when fresh painful feelings are excited in them. 



% p. 100. 



