METHOD OF STUDY. 9 



can and cannot do in the solution of psychological problems ; 

 what the student may, or should not, attempt. 



17. There should be no confusion with other probably 

 irrelevant questions or subjects. What the student has to 

 determine for himself is simply this: whether other animals 

 than man, and what animals, exhibit such phenomena as 

 in him are ascribed to, or inseparably associated with, our 

 ideas of mind. 



18. His judgment should be cool and dispassionate, his 

 decisions impartial ; the mischievous element temper should 

 be eliminated from all possible controversy in which he may 

 find himself involved; and, as a rule, all controversy itself is 

 to be avoided, as tending to the introduction of irrelevant 

 and objectionable personalities. 



19. In short, his investigation should be conducted on a 

 strictly scientific method, and in the true scientific spirit. 



Assuming, however, the perfect competency of the student 

 to grapple with his task, there are certain inherent difficulties 

 in the subject itself. For instance, it is not at all so easy 

 as may a priori appear, in drawing comparisons between 

 the mental phenomena of man and other animals, to make 

 the necessary allowance for differences in structure and habits, 

 with which differences in mind and its manifestations are 

 correlated. 



Again, we are frequently told of man's incapacity for 

 estimating either the quality or range, nature or comprehen- 

 siveness, of animal reason. But this is too obviously a con- 

 clusion based on the assumption that animal reason differs 

 essentially from man's. Much has been urged as to the 

 fallacy of reasoning by or from analogy ; of judging of 

 mind in other animals from the character of that of man. 

 Fortunately, or unfortunately, it is only in this way, by com- 

 parison with his own ideas, feelings, actions, that man can 

 study the mental or moral endowments of other animals at 

 all ; and it appears (to me at least) that this method of study, 

 this mode of forming a judgment such data for instituting 

 a comparison lead us to perfectly trustworthy results, as- 

 suming always that the student possesses the qualifications 

 for such an enquiry that have been already specified. 



