THE ANIMAL MIND 



he discovered the use to which he could put that 

 particular stick, without any notion of the principle 

 involved? — just as he had doubtless found out that 

 an object, or his own body unsupported, would fall 

 to the floor of his cage, without having grasped the 

 principle of gravitation. 



The earliest men must have discovered the uses 

 of the lever long before they had any true under- 

 standing of its principle. I do not believe that any 

 of the orders below man grasp principles at all, 

 though they may apply a principle in their act. The 

 beaver applies the principle of the dam to the creek 

 where he locates his house, but to say that he works 

 from an intellectual conception of that principle, I 

 think, would be to lift him to the human plane at 

 once. The swallow, and the robin, and the phcebe- 

 bird, all act upon the principle that mud will adhere 

 to a rough surface, and that it will harden; shall we, 

 therefore, credit them with a knowledge of the prop- 

 erties of mud? However, I freely admit that the 

 act of the chimpanzee was of a higher order than the 

 swallow's use of mud in sticking its nest to a rough 

 surface. Its superior intelligence is seen iu its pur- 

 poseful use of a tool, an object in no wise related to 

 itself, to bring about a definite end; just as another 

 monkey of which Mr. Hornaday speaks used a 

 stick to punch a banana out of a pipe. 



I do not agree with those who urge that an ani- 

 mal, such as the beaver for instance, gives proof 

 115 



