THE HISTORY OP MENTAL DEVELOPMENT 121 



was induced to try turning the handle the wrong way ; he 

 always screwed it from right to left. As soon as he had accom- 

 plished his wish he unscrewed it again, and then screwed it in 

 again the second time rather more easily than the first, and so 

 on many times. When he had become by practice tolerably 

 perfect in screwing and unscrewing, he gave it up and took to 

 some other amusement. One remarkable thing is that he should 

 take so much trouble to do that which is no material benefit to 

 him. The desire to accomplish a chosen task seems a sufficient 

 inducement to lead him to take any amount of trouble. This 

 seems a very human feeling, such as is not shown, I believe, by 

 any other animal. It is not the desire of praise, as he never 

 notices people looking on ; it is simply the desire to achieve 

 an object for the sake of achieving an object, and he never rests 

 nor allows his attention to be distracted until it is done. . . . 

 "As my sister once observed while we were watching him 

 conducting some of his researches, in oblivion to his food and 

 all his other surroundings — ' When a monkey behaves like this it 

 is no wonder that man is a scientific animal ! ' " * 



In the highest mammals we find also different de- 

 grees of attention and concentration of thought and 

 observation. This difference can easily be noticed in 

 young hunting dogs. A trainer of monkeys said that 

 he could easily select those which could most easily be 

 taught, by noticing in the first lesson whether he could 

 easily gain and hold their attention. This was easy 

 with some, while others were diverted by every passing 

 fly ; and the latter, like heedless students, made but 

 slow progress. 



It is interesting to notice that one of the perceptions 

 which we class among thehighest is apparently devel- 

 oped comparatively early. I refer to the aesthetic per- 

 ception of the beautiful. Now, the perception of 

 beauty is generally considered as not very far below or 



* Romanes : Animal Intelligence, pp. 490, 49S. 



