SCIENCE 



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matter passes into the offspring, excepting the fluid con- 

 tents of a microscopic cell strained through its walls and 

 through the wills of the ovale or ovum ! Through this 

 infinitesimal quantity of fluid, filtered through this infin- 

 itely close double filter, there passes, in some way, a law 

 of form, and a law of mental and physical idiosyncrasy 

 which is stamped upon the whole terrestrial being ot the 

 offspring, bending all the untold energies of gravity and 

 of chemical and electrical attraction, to its own particu- 

 lar whim. Through the whole terrestrial life of the off- 

 spring do I say ? — yes, and I may include in that word 

 offspring sometimes the whole progeny for a thousand 

 generations. The conscious part of the soul is still less 

 known. Its presence is one of the characteristics of ani- 

 mal as distinguished from vegetable life, and the investi- 

 gation of its comparative development in different tribes 

 of animals is the most valuable part of the field of natu- 

 ral history. 



The soul of the plant is presumed to be unconscious. 

 The phenomena of motion in the sensitive plants, and in 

 the efforts of all plants to throw their leaves to the light 

 and their roots to the richest spots in the soil, are sup- 

 posed to be as unconscious as the contraction and dilata- 

 tion of the pupil of the human eye. In that dilatation 

 and contraction there is action adapted instantly to cir- 

 cumstances, and so long as the eye is healthy, with uner- 

 ring promptitude and accuracy. An observer of the hu- 

 man animal might qjote this as evidence of the wisdom 

 of man. But on further thought he might see in the 

 very fact that the action is unerring, evidence that it did 

 not depend on the conscious volition of a finite being. 

 And we, men, know that it is a movement of which we 

 are absolutely unconscious. 



In like manner it is presumed by the majority of inves- 

 tigators, that all the movements of plants are made with 

 absolute unconsciousness on the part of the plant, and 

 that plants have in short no consciousness whatever, 

 either of their o\vn existence, or of the existence of a 

 world about them. Now it does not follow that on this 

 account the plant is to be studied in its physical relations 

 alone. It has psychical relations also, of the greatest 

 interest to a true enthusiast in botany. The gardener 

 and the botanist constantly speak of the feelings and 

 tastes of plants, and of their moral qualities — indeed 

 some plants have been named from moral nature, as, for 

 example, Rumex patientia, and Carduus benedictus, the 

 patient dock and the blessed thistle — while others have 

 moral epithets that have become as familiar as their 

 names, as, for example, the modest violet and the flaunt- 

 ing poppy. 



The geographical distribution of plants will, I think, be 

 found to depend upon something which eludes oursiudy 

 of the external conditions; something besides that physical 

 struggle for life which the English naturalists see in every 

 part of the animal and vegeiaole kingdom, as though the 

 poor in those kingdoms were oppressed by unjust- and 

 impolitic laws impeding the distribution of land, as 

 they are in the kingdom of Great Britain. There is also 

 what may be called a choice in the plants, not implying 

 by that language any consciousness in the plant, but 

 simply affirming that its flourishing herecr perishing there, 

 depends in a great measure upon an idiosyncrasy of con- 

 stitution, making it sensitive to physical changes that 

 can be measured neither by the thermometer, barometer, 

 hygrometer, electrometer nor chemist's balance. The 

 mayflower of New England, called elsewhere trailing 

 arbutus, will adapt itself, when it chooses, to clay or 

 sand, to deep shaded woods or to sunniest hillsides ; and 

 I never saw it sd flourishing as once in a peat meadow 

 over which it was slily creeping from a sand bank on its 

 edge. But take the plant up with never so much care, 

 and with never so large a sod of unbroken earth about 

 its root, and transplant it where you will, and it is a 

 hundred to one that it dies in a twelvemonth of a broken 



heart, pining for its old home. Some of these freaks 

 have been explained by the discovery that some plants 

 are semi-parasitic, stealing from the roots of others a 

 part of their food, and therefore incapable of living ex- 

 cept in the presence of their patrons, — but many remain 

 yet unexplained. 



It sesms to me, however, very plain that the souls of 

 plants, that which makes the difference between a plant 

 living in the forest, and the specimen in the herbarium, 

 that which guides the forces of nature to the building of 

 the plant, and which turns its leaves to the light, is 

 worthy of study in all its relations. It is a depository of 

 divine thought, deposited there ultimately for our instruc- 

 tion as one of its final causes and therefore worthy of 

 the most careful attention. 



The intellectual and moral development of animals is 

 also doubtless governed by a plan. The difference be- 

 tween the dull oyster and intelligent, affectionate dog, is 

 as much the result of a plan, or thought, of the Creator, 

 as is the difference of their forms. The horse and the 

 ox are as admirably adapted to domestication by their 

 mental as by their bodily gifts. All the instincts of all 

 animals are adapted to their organization and to the na- 

 ture of the world and of other animals among which 

 they are placed. 



Even should we suppose that the men'al power of 

 animals is the result of their organization, that is to say, 

 even if we should suppose that mental power is latent in 

 matter, and simply rendered active by organization, we 

 should be compelled, upon a thorough study of the 

 mental development of animals, to admit that their souls 

 can be classified upon a logical plan, just as their forms 

 can bef and we should be forced to admit, that this 

 latent soul in matter is capable not only of organizing 

 matter according to a logically developed series of forms, 

 but of elimina'ing out of its own totality separate minds 

 in a progressive series logically connec.ed. 



The very great importance of this study of comparative 

 psychology, of becoming acquainted with the mental 

 and moral characters of animals, is obvious. Many at- 

 tempts to found a science of comparative psychology 

 have been undertaken. But the field is vast, and the 

 progress of the survey slow. At the Baltimore meeting 

 of the American Association for the advancement of Sci- 

 ence, Dr. Weinland proposed a method for this new sci- 

 ence, ingenious and sound, but by no means exhaustive. 

 He lays down nine fundamental principles ; first, that the 

 distinguishing mark of an animal is its consciousness of 

 an outer world ; secondly, that this consciousness of an 

 outer world is the fundamental principle of the soul of 

 animals; thirdly, that the consciousness of self results 

 from and is proportioned to the consciousness of the 

 outer world ; fourthly, the degree of psychical develop- 

 ment can bejudged from the degree of development of 

 the consciousness of an outer world ; fifthly, this may be 

 judged from the development of the organs of that con- 

 sciousness ; sixthly, these organs are of three kinds, 

 those receptive of sensations, reflective organs and the 

 organs of voluntary motion ; seventhly, we may depend 

 in comparative psychology mainly upon a study of the 

 organs of voluntary motion ; eighthly, these motions may 

 be divided into two classes, those which refer only to the 

 animal himself, and those by which he would hold com- 

 munication with other animals ; ninthly, man stands at 

 the head of all animals, since his voluntary motions are 

 not only more numerous and perfect than those of other 

 animals, but because through machinery he increases 

 vastly the number of his organs, runs upon the locomo- 

 tive, talks through the printing press and telegram, and 

 snows us what is most distant through the telescope and 

 stereoscope. 



But it is impossible for us to understand any of the 

 phenomena of consciousness save through an appeal to 

 our own consciousness. The mere investigation of the 



