AND OTHER ANIMALS. 109 



alphabet, so as to form man's words. We have here a know- 

 ledge and use of printed letters far beyond what is attained 

 or attainable by whole races of man with all his 'poten- 

 tialities.' 



17. Tradition. It has yet to be proved that all men 

 possess tradition in some form oral, written, or printed. 

 Mere oral tradition occurs not only among certain savages, 

 but frequently even among civilised or semi-civilised peoples. 

 But there may be nay, there is a kind of tradition that 

 exists without words, writing or printing, transmitted, as in 

 man, from old to young, from one generation to another 

 (Houzeau). We are too apt to forget the influence of here- 

 dity the transmission of ancestral knowledge and experience. 

 Many savage races have no oral traditions even that is, no 

 tradition of any sort, except that which may be involved in 

 organic heredity. It does not follow therefore that, among 

 the lower animals, in the absence of oral tradition, writing, 

 and printing, each individual has to begin its education and 

 experience de novo ; that it receives no benefit from the 

 wisdom of its ancestry ; that there is nothing like an accumu- 

 lation, a continuity, or a permanent record of the results of 

 observation, reflection, and experience. Heredity furnishes 

 such a record : the brain and nervous system where they 

 exist are to be regarded as an organised register of ancestral 

 knowledge and experience (Spalding). Traditionary informa- 

 tion has been described in bees (Stickney) and in many 

 other animals that is, the hereditary transmission of inform- 

 ation. It is more than possible, then, that certain animals 

 may possess traditions of a kind equivalent to some of those 

 which are oral in man. 



18. Knowledge of the past. Various animals, however, 

 profit by past experience, and they have very retentive 

 memories for, or vivid recollections of, past events, as well as 

 of persons, places, and things. 



19. Individuality. But this is quite as striking, for 

 instance, in the dog as in man, as is shown in a separate 

 chapter. 



20. The power of will applied to self-control. But it is 

 impossible for man to exhibit self-restraint the repression 



