MIND IN EVOLUTION 539 



for so many years that he got as far inside their heads as it 

 was possible to go without metempsychosis; and it is probable 

 that a reliable appreciation of the depth of animal life may 

 he got by making a sympathetic study of some suitable an- 

 imal like dog or horse. For there we meet with something 

 approaching our own personality, which leads us on just as 

 our mother's personality did in most momentous ways long 

 ago. The animals also may become aware in new ways of 

 our personality and send out tendrils of intelligence and emo- 

 tion which are impossible in ordinary circumstances. 



Lastly, may we notice once again the risk of concentrating 

 attention on reflexes, tropisms, instincts, predispositions, 

 habituations. If we have read the story aright it is part of 

 the tactics of evolution to increase organisation or enregistra- 

 tion so that freedom may be more worth while. How in- 

 accurate might be a parsimonious account of the intellectual 

 value of the daily routine of a very methodical worker. 

 Only in flashes does the intelligence or the reason gleam out 

 convincingly. We should look out for such flashes in animal 

 life. We see one when a wounded dog, being dressed, checks 

 a bite and turns it into a caress. 



Was Hume ironical when he said, " No truth appears to 

 me more evident than that beasts are endowed with thought 

 and reason as well as men. The arguments are in this case 

 so obvious that they never escape the most stupid and ig- 

 norant." The fact is that it is peculiarily difficult to find 

 evidences of thinking among animals. We cannot find an 

 objective criterion of intelligence; we have to rely on the 

 treacherous argument from analogy. Yet how are we to 

 establish a contact between our mind and a bird's or to find 

 a common denominator between our behaviour and a hive- 

 bee's? We are faced with the dangers of fanciful anthropo- 



