PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE 43 



self -moving bodies, for we see here, in this plant, motion and 

 volition." ^® 



Nowhere else is Bartram so plain-spoken in his belief that 

 vegetables have volition. In the very next paragraph he is not 

 quite certain whether it is "sense or instinct that influences" 

 the actions of vegetables, and decides merely that " it must be 

 some impulse," adding the query: " or does the hand of the 

 Almighty act and perform this work in our sight?" {Travels, 

 xxi) . He recognizes, of course, differences between plants and 

 animals: " animals have the powers of sound, and are loco- 

 motive," yet in essentials the differences are slight. " Vegetables " 

 too, he observes, " have the power of moving and exercising 

 their members, and have the means of transplanting and colon- 

 izing their tribes almost over the surface of the whole earth," 

 (p. yiyin), and besides, "The vital principle or efficient cause 

 of motion and action, in the animal and vegetable system, per- 

 haps may be more similar than we generally apprehend" (pp. 

 xxi-xxii) . 



When he discusses animals, however, Bartram is much more 

 definite in his theories. His observations of animal behavior are 

 numerous and detailed, and his interpretations merge into a 

 coherent system of thought. The basis of the system is the belief 

 that nature is an emanation of a benevolent God, and that since 

 the animal creation is a part of nature, it therefore, too, is 

 benevolent. Consequently he becomes a champion of the right 

 of animals to be treated humanely. A good deal of this syllo- 

 gistic reasoning is nothing more than humanitarian emotion 

 rationalized; this, however, does not minimize Bartram' s con- 

 tribution to the description and understanding of animal 

 psychology. 



His study of the behavior of a crow ^^ is as cautiously worded 

 as any modern scientist might wish. At the outset he warns us 

 that he does not " here speak of the crow, collectively, as giving 

 an account of the whole race," for he is convinced " that these 

 birds differ as widely as men do from each other, in point of 



^* Travels, xx-xxi. Van Doren's edition of the Travels has "' familiar " for 

 ■" similar" (p. 19), which is obviously a misprint. 



^^ " Anecdotes of an American Crow." By William Bartram. Phila. Med. & 

 Phys. Journal, I, Part I, 1804, pp. 89-95. 



