iyo THE GROUNDWORK OF SCIENCE

The conception of duty is the conception of something

supreme and absolute, apart from all question of pleasures

and pains, rewards and punishments, and also of utility. As

Cicero said, it is " Quod tale est ut detracts otnni utilitate ave

aliis pr&nriis fruitibusque per seipsum possit jure laudari"

Some of our readers may, perhaps, fancy that we have

devoted too much space to this question of ethics. But

without a full explanation of a matter so often misunderstood

and misrepresented, the problem concerning the morality

of brutes could not be demonstrated with sufficient clearness.

There is, however, another reason why we have thought

it well to dwell at some length upon this question. We have

done so in anticipation of what we shall have to say in our

eighth chapter concerning our highest faculties, and we

consider that it has a bearing on Epistemology, which cannot

reasonably be ignored.

We will now return to the question of the psychical

powers of brutes, and notice some anecdotes and examples

of their asserted intellectuality.

In considering the value of the reports made about the

intelligence of this or that animal,* we ought carefully to

bear in mind two facts. If the creatures about which the

assertions are made are creatures low in the scale of animal

life, we should recollect the extraordinary development

of instinct amongst the class of insects. If the creatures

referred to are animals of a superior kind, then we should

compare their actions with those lower faculties which we

possess, and which, as we have seen,! enable us to do so

many things in a merely automatic manner. We should

recollect how we every now and then have experienced a

feeling of malaise, we did not know on what account, till

* No one has better or more thoroughly advocated the rationality of animals

than the fate Mr. Romanes. See his book entitled MaiUl Evdntif* in MOM.

f See ante, ppi 145-156-

The conception of duty is the conception of something

supreme and absolute, apart from all question of pleasures

and pains, rewards and punishments, and also of utility. As

Cicero said, it is " Quod tale est ut detracts otnni utilitate ave

aliis pr&nriis fruitibusque per seipsum possit jure laudari"

Some of our readers may, perhaps, fancy that we have

devoted too much space to this question of ethics. But

without a full explanation of a matter so often misunderstood

and misrepresented, the problem concerning the morality

of brutes could not be demonstrated with sufficient clearness.

There is, however, another reason why we have thought

it well to dwell at some length upon this question. We have

done so in anticipation of what we shall have to say in our

eighth chapter concerning our highest faculties, and we

consider that it has a bearing on Epistemology, which cannot

reasonably be ignored.

We will now return to the question of the psychical

powers of brutes, and notice some anecdotes and examples

of their asserted intellectuality.

In considering the value of the reports made about the

intelligence of this or that animal,* we ought carefully to

bear in mind two facts. If the creatures about which the

assertions are made are creatures low in the scale of animal

life, we should recollect the extraordinary development

of instinct amongst the class of insects. If the creatures

referred to are animals of a superior kind, then we should

compare their actions with those lower faculties which we

possess, and which, as we have seen,! enable us to do so

many things in a merely automatic manner. We should

recollect how we every now and then have experienced a

feeling of malaise, we did not know on what account, till

* No one has better or more thoroughly advocated the rationality of animals

than the fate Mr. Romanes. See his book entitled MaiUl Evdntif* in MOM.

f See ante, ppi 145-156-