Essays on Life 



thought without words at all; our difficulty, 

 however, in imagining the particular manner 

 in which the cat thinks has nothing to do with 

 the matter. We must answer the question 

 whether she thinks or no, not according to 

 our own ease or difficulty in understanding 

 the particular manner of her thinking, but 

 according as her action does or does not 

 appear to be of the same character as other 

 action that we commonly call thoughtful. 

 To say that the cat is not intelligent, merely 

 on the ground that we cannot ourselves 

 fathom her intelligence this, as I have else- 

 where said, is to make intelligence mean the 

 power of being understood, rather than the 

 power of understanding. This nevertheless 

 is what, for all our boasted intelligence, we 

 generally do. The more we can understand 

 an animal's ways, the more intelligent we call 

 it, and the less we can understand these, the 

 more stupid do we declare it to be. As for 

 plants whose punctuality and attention to 

 all the details and routine of their somewhat 

 restricted lines of business is as obvious as it 



is beyond all praise we understand the work- 



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