Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/772

752 is so wide of the facts that it must be a mistaken theory. It places man too high, and assigns to the various tribes of lower animals too low a position in the moral and intellectual scale to agree with observation. A wide and unnecessary chasm is thus placed between man and the inferior animals, when, in fact, the lower tribes of men and the higher tribes of animals, such as elephants, foxes, dogs, and monkeys, are not so greatly apart in the line of intelligence and moral perception. Savages recognize this affinity. Thus we are assured that certain tribes of negroes regard monkeys as their near relatives, who have been deprived of the power of speech on account of their mischievousness and badness.

The wonderful manifestations of instinct are so remarkable that the old theory ascribed it to God himself having directly implanted it, "from without and from above"; but that theory has been set aside by modern investigation, and it is now very generally recognized that instinct is the hereditary result of long experience. This being the case, all the manifold exhibitions of reflection and reason, and careful, self-denying affection shown by the various tribes of animals, must be ascribed to the workings of their intellectual and moral faculties through long periods of time.

Dr. Mark Hopkins, in his "Scriptural Idea of Man," teaches that man alone, among the animals upon the earth, is dignified by the possession of what constitutes him "a person." Personality, according to Dr. Hopkins, arises from consciousness, reason, and a moral nature. Consciousness is defined (p. 48) as "the knowledge of his own existence by a being who knows himself to be. . . . Thus arises a knowledge of rights and obligations. . . . Thus man is formed to rule over the lower creation. . . . From all that is below him man is most widely separated" (p. 106). "Of dominion over itself, over nature, or over its fellows, no brute can know anything; nor can it know anything of an intelligent mediation between nature and God. Being destitute of rational and moral elements, the brute can not have the first dawning of either of these ideas" (p. 103).

In reply to these statements we observe—that brutes do rule over themselves, oftentimes exhibiting remarkable self-control. Nothing is more common than for the parent animal to abstain from food until the young ones are provided for. Brutes do rule over each other—scarcely any of the gregarious animals fail to show this power; it is true of monkeys, stags, elephants, bulls, and birds in their migrations. The shepherd's dog rules over the flock committed to his care almost as well as his master As for dominion over nature, the brutes exercise just as much of it as is necessary for their well-being and preservation. A bird that builds its nest in a sheltered place exercises control over nature,