THE INTELLIGENCE OF ANIMALS.*
AN intelligent lad rising from a conscientious perusal of the book named in the foot-note as his first study of natural history, would probably do so with an overwhelming sense of the wisdom of the inferior animals, and of the sad necessity of giving up all his favourite amusements, now that he sees how futile will be his attempts to circumvent fish, flesh, or fowl, with only his unprac- tised senses against their almost supernatural sagacity and keen- ness of instinct. And what parent who has also been privileged to read this book, can offer any solid comfort or well-grounded
encouragement to go in and win to his now wiser and sadder offspring ? lie can but stand by while the boy gathers together his rod and line, his numerous complicated and cumbrous and always unsuccessful mousetraps, his butterfly nets, and what not, to be consigned in future to oblivion and the lumber room, and suggest to the depressed youth that time-honoured but not perhaps always fully-appreciated advice, to be resigned to the ways of Providence. But this will not be all. If the boy be of an imagina-
tive turn of mind and sensitive organization, he will feel that he
is surrounded by myriads of mysterious, silent beings, surpassing him in subtle wisdom, prudent cunning, and readiness of resource and expedient, and that in the contest with them, whether in pursuit of pleasure, food, or knowledge, he is sure to be worsted in the fight ; he will feel no confidence that they will not even draw their armies together, and avenge on him the countless injuries inflicted by past generations of bold and enterprising youth.
But can we not somewhat relieve the young sportsman's awe- stricken mind ? Without denying a single statement in the work before us, it is not too much to say that such books always give a very false impression of the intellectual powers of the lower animals. They bring together into a small compass a mass of isolated cases of peculiar intelligence collected from all countries and all times, and omit to remind the reader that these are the exceptions, however numerous, and not the rule. Doubt- less there are a large number of cases never recorded, and of others in which care and training might have produced results as remarkable ; but the fact that such training was not attempted is in itself some proof that it is not found to repay the expenditure of time and patience ; and then what becomes of the countless millions of instances of creatures that have lived and died without having given any evidence of power superior to the ordinary instinct exhibited by all of their kind in the preservation of life and the propagation of their species ? We are speaking of the nobler animals only, as they alone have been much subjected to man's influence, or have evinced any very unusual intelligence.
Our author seems to think that perhaps the greatest intelligence is found in the insect world ; and this may be so, and yet such
intelligence may be no higher and no more than instinct, and this seems indeed to be nearest the truth. Take the case of the ants and the bees, which M. Menault places at the head of the list ; they live in large communities, and the construction of their abodes and the arrangements for maturing their young and storing their food are more complicated than with the larger animals, or perhaps rather they seem to be so from their numbers and minuteness, but so long as they proceed on the same plan from generation to generation and show only the same qualities, we cannot call it more than instinct, however wonderful may be its manifestations. We do not quite know indeed what M. Menault is driving at ; he seems to have an idea that intelligence implies the possession of something resembling the human mind, with a capability of continuous progress, and he always speaks of it as superior to mere instinct ; but, in describing it, he enumer- ates qualities, such as memory, prudence, patience, skill, the adaptation of means to ends, the apparent reasoning from cause to effect, &c., which together make up instinct, and without which no living creature could provide for its own life. No one denies the marvellous intelligence of the animals inferior to man, and M. Menault is fighting a shadow when he argues
* The Intelligence of Animals. From the French of Ernest Menault. London : Cassell, Petter, and Cialpin.
against the unbelief in it which he assumes ; but what we look for, and have longed for in vain, is any sufficient evidence that the creatures we love, have any Mind capable of infinite cultivation, any divine capacity, any soul that we may meet and recognize in another world ; the nearest approach to this is in animals carefully
trained by man, and affords no evidence of any power that could long outlive his neglect ; that is, of any innate power of improve- ment in the races themselves.
To descend to details, many of M. Menault's facts seem hardly to bear out his inferences. The bees, he says, are seen in spring flying about the meadows visiting all the holes of the different kinds of mice, and finally selecting the one which suits their pur- pose best :—that is, it is the best hole because it is the one chosen ; whereas we want to be shown that they have chosen it because it is the best. Again, the cells for their eggs are the exact size of the eggs themselves, and as the larva; grow are split up over and over again ; " it is then that the mother shows all her intelligence," caulking them with wax so that no join is seen. There may be wisdom in this proceeding which we cannot fathom, but it seems to us too easily assumed. We should scarcely record as a proof of forethought in a human mother the constant addition of strips and patches to the garments of a growing babe, however adroitly in- serted. One is reminded of the story of Sir Isaac Newton's cut- ting a little hole in the cellar-door for the kitten, notwithstanding that there was already a large one for the cat.
Again, a species of lizard is called a " clever animal " be- cause it can make use of a special organization of the foot ; these feet are called " delicate tools," and the creature is com- pared to a "skilful mechanic" because it can use them. As well might we call a baby skilful because it can swallow or open its eye. Again, we are told that " nature has given " to the car- nivore "very fine senses, because, having to nourish themselves by warring continually with other species, they would soon perish with hunger if possessing inferior or even equal powers." Surely it is not the fineness of the sense, but, at most, only the superiority of the senses of the animal preying over those of the animal preyed upon, that is of importance, or what becomes of the argument as it affects the latter ? Do we not know that it is muscular strength and not fine sense that often wins the day ? And how are we to think of all the instances of animal stupidity with which we meet, and by which both individuals and communities invite frustration of their schemes and sudden destruction to their very existence? Horses in the field cannot resist the meagre feed of oats held out as a lure, though experience should teach them that the halter is behind and will be quickly substituted ; cows die of indigestion in a new pasture ; foxes—even old ones—instead of seeking their holes and chuckling at the discomfiture of the field, take the open in the face of hounds and huntsmen ; the sufferings of generations of partridges have never taught their youthful descendants to beware of the 1st of September and mark it with a black letter, nor when "partridge-shooting ends " have they any thanksgiving service because the gunpowder-plot is averted from the survivors. The same fish will take the same hook day after day ; wasps fly in and out of their nests under the very eyes of the young anglers whose object it is to secure their grubs for their daintiest bait ; bees put to the severest proof the powers of Sunday scholars to control their risible faculties during divine service, as they fly about the faces and necks of one nervous lady teacher after another, in search of honey from the depths of magnificent artificials ; and what instinct protects the crowd of moths and flies from the fatal fascination of the lamp ? There are certainly very different ways in which many alleged proofs of intelligence may be regarded. If the bird shows wisdom in being up early enough to secure the worm, may we not exclaim, with the idle genius, " More fool the worm for being up so early "? The cat is lauded — and justly — for its sagacity in finding its way back, under almost insuperable difficulties, to its old home ; but what can be said of the quality of the heart that prefers old walls to old friends, or of that of the intellect that chooses cold starvation and death rather than the sight of unfamiliar rooms? Not that we wish to disparage the dear old cat, indeed, we think M. Menault has awarded her scant space, and we will supplement his account with a story for which we can vouch. In an outskirt of London, where the inhabitants boast front gardens to their houses—really courts about 30 feet by 15 feet, of which a sickly laburnum, a transparent privet hedge, little blots of London pride, and a piebald patch of brown and green called a grass-plot, all delicately veneered with soot, are the characteristics—lived an old lady, who sent out four poodles under the care of her own maid, punctually every afternoon for a waddle up and down the 30 by 15. The maid's first duty was to lock the gate, lest a visitor entering carelessly should unwittingly enable an adventurous poodle to decamp, regard not being had to the fact that their weight and size would render a long start and a dark night essential conditions of their escape. On this occasion, when the constitutional was over, the maid having forgotten to unlock the gate, two ladies who came to call were unable to effect an entrance ; a low wall, the top of which was on a level with the upper doorstep, ran round the court, and the door-bell was rung by pressing a horizontal lever fixed on the wall above the bottom step, so that a person having walked up the court could easily ring the bell before ascending the steps. A grave black cat, pro- bably arrived at years of discretion, and therefore privileged to enjoy its liberty, sat up in front of the area railings, and regarded the discomfited visitors with the probable intention (if M. Menault's view be right) of chastening their spirits by the exercise of patience. Satisfied at length that they had borne it in a Christian temper, she rose, and walking with dignity up the steps and along the wall, placed her foot on the end of the lever and rang the bell, and then returned to her station.
But we must hasten to say a few words of the book itself, apart from the special purpose which its author apparently had in view. It is wanting in unity of plan ; it begins by being scientific, and gives some of the physiology and anatomy of the animals treated of ; it ends by being much more exclusively anecdotical, and is therefore properly adapted neither for the student nor the child ; the numerous quotations, from various authors, which are perhaps unavoidable, give a want of unity to the style also, which is very unpleasing, and many of the stories are so old that we have been familiar with them from our childhood. Nevertheless, there is a great wealth of interesting description and anecdote illustrating the intelligence, whether it be instinct or mind, of the whole animal creation ; such wealth indeed, that the impossibility of selecting any passages that do not immediately seem to be sur- passed in interest by others, must be our excuse for extracting nothing, and for referring lovers of natural history to the book itself, which cannot fail to add something to their stores of fact.
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