Chaf. 111. Mental Powers. 75 



power of imagination. There must be something special, which 

 sauses dogs to howl in the night, and especially during moonlight, 

 in that remarkable and melancholy manner called baying. 

 All dogs do not do so ; and, according to Houzeau,^' they do not 

 then look at the moon, but at some fixed point near the horizon, 

 Houzeau thinks that their imaginations are disturbed by the 

 vague outlines of the surrounding objects, and conjure up before 

 them fantastic images : if this be so, their feelings may almost 

 be called superstitious. 



Of all the faculties of the human mind, it will, I presume, be , 

 admitted that Reason stands at the summit. Only a few persons 

 now dispute that animals possess some power of reasoning. 

 Animals may constantly be seen to pause, deliberate, and resolve. 

 It is a significant fact, that the more the habits of any particular 

 animal are studied by a naturalist, the more he attributes to 

 reason and the less to unlearnt instincts.^'' In future chapters 

 we shall see that some animals extremely low in the scale appar- 

 ently display a certain amount of reason. No doubt it is often 

 difficult to distinguish between the power of reason anil that of 

 instinct. For instance, Dr. Hayes, in his work on ' The Open 

 Polar Sea,' repeatedly remarks that his dogs, instead of continu- 

 ing to draw the sledges in a compact body, diverged and separ- 

 ated when they came to thin ice, so that their weight might be 

 more evenly distributed. This was often the first warning 

 which the travellers received that the ice was becoming thin and 

 dangerous. Now, did the dogs act thus from the experience ot 

 each individual, or from the example of the older and wi^er dogs, 

 or from an inherited habit, that is from instinct ? This instinct, 

 may possibly have arisen since the time, long ago, when dogs 

 were first employed by the natives in drawing their sledges ; or 

 the Arctic wolves, the parent-stock of the Esquimaux dog, may 

 have acquired an ini-tiuct, impelling them not to attack thtir 

 prey in a close pack, when on thin ice. 



We can only judge by the circumstances under which actions 

 are performed, whether they are due to instinct, or to reason, or 

 to the mere association of ideas : this latter principle, however, 

 is intimately connected with reason. A curious case has been 

 given by Prof Mobius,^' of a pike, separated by a plate of glass 

 from an adjoining aquarium stocked with fish, and who often 

 dashed himself with such violence against the glass in trying to 



^^ ' Facult^s Mentales des Ani- I cannot help thinking, however, 



maux,' 1872, torn, ii, p. 181. that he goes too far in underratiU); 



" Mr. L. H. Morgan's work on the power of Instinct. 

 The American Beaver,' 1868, offers " 'Die Bewegungen der Thiere, 



» good illustration of this remark. &c., 187. J, p. 11, 



