Essays on Life 



they understand by immediately taking flight, 

 should not be credited both with reason and 

 the germs of language ? 



After all, a professor, whether of philology, 

 psychology, biology, or any other ology, is 

 hardly the kind of person to whom we should 

 appeal on such an elementary question as 

 that of animal intelligence and language. 

 We might as well ask a botanist to tell us 

 whether grass grows, or a meteorologist to 

 tell us if it has left off raining. If it is neces- 

 sary to appeal to any one, I should prefer the 

 opinion of an intelligent gamekeeper to that of 

 any professor, however learned. The keepers, 

 again, at the Zoological Gardens, have excep- 

 tional opportunities for studying the minds of 

 animals modified, indeed, by captivity, but 

 still minds of animals. Grooms, again, and 

 dog-fanciers, are to the full as able to form an 

 intelligent opinion on the reason and language 

 of animals as any University Professor, and so 

 are cats'-meat men. I have repeatedly asked 

 gamekeepers and keepers at the Zoological 

 Gardens whether animals could reason and 



converse with one another, and have always 



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