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Show THE DESCENT OF 1\f.AN. PART I. The principle of Imitation is strong m man, and -especially in man in a barbarous state. Desor 10 has remarked that no animal voluntarily imitates an action performed by man, until in the ascending scale we come to monkeys, which are well-known to be ridiculous mockers. Animals, however, sometimes imitate each others' actions: thus two species of wolves, which had been reared by dogs, learned to bark, as does sometimes the jackal,11 but whether this can be called voluntary imitation is another question. From one account which I have read, there is reason to believe that puppies nursed by cats sometimes learn to lick their feet and thus to clean their faces : it is at least certain, as I hear from a perfectly trustworthy friend, that some doas behave in this manner. Birds imitate the songs of their parents, and s~meti~~s those of other birds ; and parrots are notonous 1m1tators of any sound which they often hear. Hardly any faculty is more important for the intellec~ ual progress of man than the power of Attention. Ammals clearly manifest this power, as when a cat wa:ches .by a hole and prepares to spring on its prey. 'VIld ammals sometimes become so absorbed when thus engaged, that. they may be easily approached. Mr. Bartlett. h~s given me a curious proof how variable this fttculty IS m monkeys. A man who trains monkeys to act .used to purcha~e common kinds from the Zoological Somety at the pnce of five pounds for each· but he offered to give double the price, if he might k:ep three or four of them for a few days, in order to select one. When asked how he could possibly so soon learn whether 10 Quoted b ~ V og t ' ' l\1 e' mo·u e sur les Microcephales' 1867 168 . u 2'7Tho Vanation of Animals and Plants under Do~estic~tf~n' v.ol. l. p. . ' ~" ...... ~ -..: .. ~- ~- CHAP. II. MENT..iL POWERS. 45 a particular monkey would turn out a good actor, he answered that it all depended on their power of attention. If when he was talking and explaining anything to a monkey, its attention was easily distracted, as by a fly on the wall or other trifling object, the case was hopeless. If he tried by punishment to make an inattentive monkey act, it turned sulky. On the other hand, a monkey which carefully attended to him could always be trained. It is almost superfluous to state that animals have excellent Memories for persons and places. A baboon at the Cape of Good Hope, as I have been informed by Sir Andrew Smith, recognised him with joy after an absence of nine months. I had a dog who was savage and averse to all strangers, and I purposely tried his memory after an absence of five years and two days. I went near the stable where he lived, and shouted to him in my old manner ; he showed no joy, but instantly followed me out walking and obeyed me, exactly as if I bad parted with him only half-an-hom: before. A train of old associations, dormant during five years, had thus been instantaneously awakened in his mind. Even ants, as P. Huber 12 has clearly shewn, recognised their fellow-ants belonging to the same community after a separation of four months. Animals can certainly by some means judge of the intervals of time between recurrent events. The Imaginat£on is one of the highest prerogatives of man. By this faculty he unites, independ ntly of the will, former images and ideas, and thus creates brilliant and novel results. A poet, as Jean Paul Hiobt r remarks,l3 "who must reflect whether he shall llHtk n. 12 'Les Moours des Fourmis,' 18 LO, p. 150 . 13 Quoted in Dr. Maudsloy's 'Physiology nntl ruthology of Min\1,' 1868, pp. 19, 220. |