190 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
to slake their thirst. Upon this the Eev. G. Henslow writes to 
question the truth of the story, and stating his opinion that brute 
reasoning was always practical, but never abstract ; and goes on to 
illustrate what he means by adducing the conduct of a boy who 
found the straps of his skates frozen, when nothing but cutting 
suggested itself to him, and neither he nor his school-fellows con- 
sidered that the ice would melt if he sat upon them for a few 
minutes ; and deduces that " brutes and young persons are just 
alike in that nothing occurs to either beyond what the immediate 
fact before them may suggest." Professor St. George Mivart once 
said that an interesting book might be written upon the stupidity 
of animals, and Mr. Eomanes said that an interesting book might 
be written upon the stupidity of savages, and I think that a still 
more interesting, and probably much more instructive, book might 
be written on the stupidity of so-called civilized man. A very 
short space of time might be covered, and, to go no further, recent 
events in the history of our town and country would afford ample 
illustrations. Anecdotes of all kinds, and some most convincing, 
then poured in, and in J une Mr. Eomanes summed up the evidence 
which he concluded proved that mental reflection existed without 
doubt in the lower animals ; " that they possessed " abstract 
thought, " and that the phenomena of dreaming presented by 
several animals would seem sufficient proof that some animals at 
least possess a tolerably well-developed imagination." Very much 
correspondence followed of an interesting character, and it still 
continues \ and to those who are unacquainted with the present 
position of the question, " instinct and reason," and who would 
like some pleasant and instructive reading, I would recommend 
the perusal of the articles and correspondence to be found in vols, 
xix. and xx. of the very valuable periodical to which I have 
referred. The long promised work of Dr. Lauder Lindsay, on 
Mind in the Loiver Animals in Health and Disease, now shortly 
to be issued, will be read with interest, the object of the author 
being to show that mind in animals is of the same kind as in man, 
and that the lower animals are liable to the same varieties of 
mental defect and derangement as man. 
For many years the Encyclopaedia Britannica has been given to 
the world. Eight successive editions have been published ; but 
until the issue of the last edition we should have looked in vain 
