No doubt, as Mr. Wallace has argued, much of the
intelligent work done by man is due to imitation and not to reason; but
there is this great difference between his actions and many of those
performed by the lower animals, namely, that man cannot, on his first
trial, make, for instance, a stone hatchet or a canoe, through his power
of imitation. He has to learn his work by practice; a beaver, on the
other hand, can make its dam or canal, and a bird its nest, as well, or
nearly as well, and a spider its wonderful web quite as well, the first
time it tries as when old and experienced.
To return to our immediate subject: the lower animals, like man,
manifestly feel pleasure and pain, happiness and misery. Happiness is
never better exhibited than by young animals, such as puppies, kittens,
lambs, etc., when playing together, like our own children. Even insects
play together, as has been described by that excellent observer, P.
Huber, who saw ants chasing and pretending to bite each other, like so
many puppies.
The fact that the lower animals are excited by the same emotions as
ourselves is so well established that it will not be necessary to weary
the reader by many details.
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