422 
ON INSTINCT. 
not refer to the different disgusting and unnatural tricks that are 
taught to various quadrupeds, but to those only which could be 
considered as the result of their reasoning powers. I could, if 
time permitted, adduce the most extraordinary anecdotes of dogs, 
to prove that they possess all the motives and feelings worthy of 
a rational creature,—that they have memory and attention, re¬ 
flection and judgment, and a consciousness of truth and duty, 
affection, gratitude, disinterestedness, and devotedness, I have 
in the present lecture shewn that the monkey tribes possess many 
of these, and, even in a state of captivity, they present a more un¬ 
disguised and complete development of the actual animal passions 
than is, perhaps, to be found in any other creature. The following 
anecdote must conclude this part of my subject, which will prove 
that they are not only capable of attachment, but subject to the 
most uncontrollable paroxysms of rage and passion :— 
“A chacma, of large size and proportions, kept in the Paris 
menagerie, managed to escape one day from his cage into the 
enclosure belonging to it. Irritated by the stubborn refusal of 
the baboon to return, his keeper, not very prudently, threatened 
him with a stick. This, instead of producing the desired effect, 
roused all the ferocity of the beast, and he flew at the unfor¬ 
tunate man, whom he wounded so severely in the thigh as to 
endanger his life. The chacma continued at large, though almost 
every expedient to make him return to confinement was resorted 
to. No,—all would not do. At last it was recollected that the 
keeper’s daughter, who had been kind to the prisoner, seemed to 
be a decided favourite; so the pretty French woman, tirte a quatre 
tpingleSy appeared at a door opposite to that of the cage through 
which the animal had to pass. But even so powerful a lure 
had no effect, till a man approached the belle and pretended to 
caress her. This was too much ; the poor jealous dupe could 
not bear the sight. He darted furiously through the open door 
of his prison at the hateful intruder, and was instantly secured. 
This was treacherous; but as the lords of the creation themselves, 
from Samson down to the Macheaths, have been the victims of 
the dear delightful deluders, a chacma has no right to complain*.” 
From these few anecdotes you must perceive that there are 
other animals than man that can reason in a degree; and whether 
in man or a goose, I hold one thing to be undeniably demonstrative 
of the existence of the reasoning principle, and that is, the capa¬ 
bility of receiving instruction, or of forming certain conclusions 
from previous experience. We recognize this quality, as I said 
before, in a greater or less degree throughout the higher order of 
animals, and, view it as we will, we can conclude it to be the 
* Cuvier. 
