FREE FOR THE DAY. 8 1 



may be unsucessful, but that does not prove that 

 some one may not succeed where the others 

 failed ; nor can the animadversions of the critical 

 alter the fact that some one has succeeded. 



Have any of those who have spent the sum- 

 mer in the country amused themselves by watch- 

 ing some one animal as it was busy with life's 

 cares ? I hope so ; and while so doing, was the 

 creature credited with intelligence or blind in- 

 stinct ? I trust with the former. But " Stay ! " 

 shouts the critic, " do you realize the danger of 

 loose interpretation?" How are we to decide 

 whether or not an animal thinks as we do? 

 Hereon hinges the whole matter. Obviously, it 

 can never be demonstrated with what may be 

 called mathematical certainty ; but the average, 

 unbiased observer will admit that when a creat- 

 ure acts under given circumstances precisely as 

 he would do, that the brain directing those move- 

 ments is essentially such a brain as his own. 

 To prove that it is something else is left with 

 those who deny the position that I take. Ani- 

 mals think; they are not mere machines; this 

 position is as rational as to claim it of some of the 

 lowest existing races of mankind, for the claim is 

 laid upon the same class of occurrences. To 

 wander abroad, whether in the forest or on the 

 plain, and not to look upon animate creation as 

 endowed with intelligence of course, of varying 



