INSTINCT v. REASON 
85 
“ Brutes are devoid of reason. Instinct, indeed, they have, but not reason. 
For reason apprehends the abstract and the universal ; whereas brutes apprehend 
only the concrete and the singular. Moreover, where intellect is, there must be 
intellectual progress ; but brutes make no intellectual progress. They exhibit no 
individual free variation in method ; for instance, in nest-building or in song. 
The chaffinch builds an elaborate nest, but all chaffinches build exactly in the 
same way. Ants and bees work in a wonderful, mathematical fashion, but they 
worked exactly in the same mathematical fashion in the time of Aristotle, 2,300 
years ago. There has been no progress. The sheep is as silly now as then. 
The goose cackles as foolishly now as then. The nightingale always sings like a 
nightingale ; the ass always brays like an ass. No brute ever invented a 
mechanical instrument ; or lit a fire ; or manufactured an overcoat ; or devised 
a pair of boots ; or intelligently handed on a piece of information from one 
generation to another.” 
The learned preacher has probably never heard of birds in 
our parks building their nests of wax vestas, of others using steel 
watch-springs, or of the frugivorous ground-parrot of New 
Zealand which has become carnivorous. 
In another column of the same paper we found the following 
story : — 
“ Two fox-terriers had held the house for several years in undisputed posses- 
sion so far as four-footed animals went, until one day a poor little waif of a 
kitten was given shelter. The dogs showed the utmost jealousy at the first sight 
of the kitten, and hour after hour their jealousy increased. If any one spoke to 
the kitten the dogs were up in arms at once, barking, rampaging. If the kitten 
were offered a saucer of milk, the dogs would bark and snarl so fiercely that the 
poor little thing would be afraid to touch it. Their jealousy was so marked and 
so bitter that every endeavout was made to overcome it, but without success ; 
and everything was done to guard the kitten from real danger. But one day the 
kitten mysteriously disappeared. And a few hours later a gardener, digging a 
flower-bed, was greatly struck by the demeanour of the terriers, who seemed to 
have developed an unusual liking for his society. They sat together as still as 
statues, hard by where he was digging, intently watching his every movement. 
So mysterious, almost uncanny, was their behaviour, that the gardener at last 
rushed at the dogs, waving his spade to drive them away. And then, in the 
ground, just where the dogs had been sitting, something became evident that told 
a terrible tale. The tip of a poor little waif of a kitten’s tail protruded from the 
earth. It was quite clear that the jealousy of the dogs had been so extreme that 
they had committed deliberate murder, and they had dug a grave and tried their 
best to bury the corpse. Disturbed by the gardener, they had, with one accord, 
to hide their guilt, sat on the tip of the tail that had refused to be buried.” 
It was certainly a curious coincidence that in reading Pepys’ 
Diary, about an hour later, we came to this passage, under the 
date of September n, 1661 : — 
“To Dr. Williams, who did carry me into his garden, where he hath abund- 
ance of grapes ; and he did show me how a dog that he hath do kill all the cats 
that come thither to kill his pigeons, and do afterwards bury them ; and do it 
with so much care that they shall be quite covered ; that if the tip of the tail 
hangs out he will take up the cat again and dig the hole deeper. Which is very 
strange ; and he tells me, that he do believe that he hath killed above a hundred 
cats.” 
