wild-ducks. I give the above cases as resting on the evidence of two
independent witnesses and because in both instances the retrievers,
after deliberation, broke through a habit which is inherited by them
(that of not killing the game retrieved), and because they show how
strong their reasoning faculty must have been to overcome a fixed habit.

I will conclude by quoting a remark by the illustrious Humboldt. "The
muleteers in South America say, 'I will not give you the mule whose step
is easiest, but _la mas racional_--the one that reasons best;'" and, as
he adds, "this popular expression, dictated by long experience, combats
the system of animated machines better perhaps than all the arguments of
speculative philosophy." Nevertheless some writers even yet deny that
the higher animals possess a trace of reason; and they endeavour to
explain away, by what appears to be mere verbiage, all such facts as
those above given.

It has, I think, now been shown that man and the higher animals,
especially the Primates, have some few instincts in common. All have the
same senses, intuitions, and sensations--similar passions, affections,
and emotions, even the more complex ones, such as jealousy, suspicion,
emulation, gratitude and magnanimity; they practise deceit and are
revengeful; they are sometimes susceptible to ridicule, and even have a
sense of humour; they feel wonder and curiosity; they possess the same
faculties of imitation, attention, deliberation, choice, memory,
imagination, the association of ideas, and reason, though in very
different degrees.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 57: From Chapter III of "The Descent of Man," 1871. All except