14 THE HUMANIZING OF THE BRUTE. 



and those "popularizers," as Wheeler justly calls 

 them, who now uphold it with such tendentious tenac- 

 ity often seem to have no other purpose in view 

 than to establish a theoretical justification for des- 

 cending practically to a level with the brute. 



These reasons we believe clearly prove the deplor- 

 able character of this modern tendency which aims at 

 leveling the difference between animal and man, a 

 tendency which, because of its universality and the 

 warm support it receives, calls for most strenuous 

 opposition. 



It is our intention to contribute in some small 

 share to the controversy, and to prove in a simple and 

 clear manner the essential difference which has ever 

 been upheld by Catholic philosophy with reference to 

 the souls of man and brute. Man and brute belong to 

 two different realms of life, separated by a spanless 

 chasm. This is the thesis we propose to the consid- 

 eration of the reader, and in order to demonstrate it, 

 we shall confine ourselves to the specific activities of 

 man and brute, basing our entire argumentation on 

 the following simple syllogism: 



True instinct and intelligence * ) differ essentially. 

 Now the brute possesses merely instinct and no trace of 

 intelligence. Therefore man and brute differ essentially. 



In the first part of the essay we shall develop 

 the concept of instinct, then explain the true 



*) That is "rational intelligence." To avoid misunder- 

 standings we may note here that by the term intelligence, we 

 always mean intelligence in its proper signification, that is 

 rational intelligence. 



