MENTAL CONSTITUTION OF ANIMALS. 241 



obliquely against a wall. So mental action may be impon- 

 derable, intangible, and yet a real existence, and ruled by the 

 Eternal through his la\vs.(") 



Common observation shows a great general superiority of 

 the human mind over that of the inferior animals. Man's 

 rnind is almost infinite in device ; it ranges over all the 

 world : it forms the most wonderful combinations ; it seeks 

 back into the past, and stretches forward into the future ; 

 while the animals generally appear to have a narrow range of 

 thought and action. But so also has an infant but a limited 

 range, and yet it is mind which works there, as well as in 

 the most accomplished adults. The difference between mind 

 in the lower animals and in man is a difference in degree 

 only ; it is not a specific difference. All who have studied 

 animals by actual observation, and even those who have given 

 a candid attention to the subject in books, must attain more 

 or less clear convictions of this truth, notwithstanding all the 

 obscurity which prejudice may have engendered. We see 

 animals capable of affection, jealousy, envy ; we see them 

 quarrel, and conduct quarrels in the very manner pursued by 

 the ruder and less educated of our own race. We see them 

 liable to flattery, inflated with pride, and dejected by shame. 

 We see them as tender to their young as human parents are, 

 and as faithful to a trust as the most conscientious of human 

 servants. The horse is startled by marvellous objects, as a 

 man is. The dog and many others show tenacious memory. 

 The dog also proves himself possessed of imagination, by the 

 act of dreaming. Horses finding themselves in want of a 

 shoe, have of their own accord gone to a farrier's shop 

 where they were shod before. Cats closed up in rooms, will 

 endeavour to obtain their liberation by pulling a latch or 

 ringing a bell. A monkey, wishing to get into a particular 

 tree, and seeing a dangerous snake at the bottom of it, 

 watched for hours till he found the reptile for a moment off 

 its guard ; he sprang upon it, and, seizing it by the neck, 

 bruised its head to pieces against a stone ; after which he 

 quietly ascended the tree. We can hardly doubt that the 

 animal seized and bruised the head, because he knew or 



