INTRODUCTION. xvii 



In submitting to the reader in the following pages the 

 conclusions deducible or deduced from my own researches, 

 I do not forget the adage ' Quot homines, tot sententise.' 

 I do not expect those .who approach the subject from 

 very different points of view to accept either my facts or 

 inferences ; or, assuming that the facts are accepted, I can- 

 not hope that other students will draw the same conclu- 

 sions or form the same opinions. I have no wish to thrust 

 my own views dogmatically on any reader. Rather do I 

 offer him the means of forming an opinion of his own by 

 giving him, for instance, in the Bibliography the data on 

 which I have partly based my own conclusions . 



I plead not for an immediate or even an ultimate ac- 

 ceptance of my opinions, but simply for a dispassionate 

 study of the subject of the mental endowments of the lower 

 animals, convinced that such a study can only eventuate in 

 benefit equally to the student and to the objects of study 

 these lower animals themselves whether or not it be 

 conceded that in them mind is the same in kind as in man. 

 I hope, whether the reader agree or disagree with me as 

 to the nature and extent of animal mind, at least to es- 

 tablish certain new claims on the part of the lower animals 

 upon man's consideration and kindness. 



At all events I can honestly say of my work 



'Tis not the hasty product of a day ; 



and I must leave it to the reader to determine whether it 

 can be equally truthfully added 



But the well-ripened fruit of wise delay. 



