206 APES AND MONKEYS 



a minute more the last knot was released. She then gath- 

 ered the whole line into a bundle, looked at those around 



her with that look of contempt which we have described, 

 and departed at once in search of other mischief. Her air 

 of triumph and content was enough to convince any one of 

 her opinion of what she had done. 



If this feat was the result of instinct, the lexicons must 

 give another definition for that word. There were six 

 white men who witnessed the act, and the verdict of all 

 of them was that she had solved a problem which few 

 children of her own age could have done. Every move- 

 ment was controlled by reason. The tracing out of cause 

 and effect was too evident for any one to doubt. Almost 

 an}' animal can be taught to perform certain feats, but that 

 does not show innate capacity. The only true measure of 

 the faculty of reason is to reduce the actor to his own 

 resources and see how he will handle himself under some 

 new condition ; otherwise the act will be, at least in part, 

 mechanical or imitative. In all my efforts to study the 

 mental caliber of animals I have confined them strictly to 

 their own judgment, and left them to work out the problem 

 alone. By this means only can we estimate to what extent 

 they apply the faculty of reason. No one doubts that all 

 animals have minds which are receptive in some degree. 

 But it has often been said that they are devoid of reason 

 and controlled alone by some vague attribute called instinct. 

 Such is not the case. It is the same faculty of the mind 

 that men employ to solve the problems that arise in every 

 sphere of life, the one which sages and philosophers have 

 used in every phase of science, differing only in degree. 



