Enough has been said to show that animals have and do exercise powers
of reason. That they have the means of transmitting ideas to their
fellows is not to be questioned. Language is the means of transmission.
Not only are they able to interchange thoughts with each other, but
with man also when they are brought into contact with him. They must
possess a language of some kind, whereby they can understand each
other, can comprehend human language, and make themselves intelligible
to man. All these conditions are fulfilled in the lower animals, but
there is one distinction between the capability of understanding their
own language and that of man, and that is, that they are born with the
one and have to learn the other. Newly-hatched chickens, although they
have only entered the world an hour or so ago, understand perfectly
well their mother. They know what to do when she calls them to find
what food she has unearthed, and they know what to do when she warns
them of danger. Who has not heard them talk to her? But how different
are their tones under various circumstances. The little piping notes of
content when all is going on well can never be confounded with the cry
of alarm when they have lost their way or are otherwise frightened.
Wasps, as everybody knows who has studied these insects, carry out one
of the first principles of military art. They always have the gate of
their fortress guarded by a sentinel. Should danger be imminent, the
alarm is given by the sentinel, and out rush the inhabitants to wreak
vengeance upon the offender. Out of a full-sized nest, consisting of
many hundred wasps, it is evident that the individual who is to act as
sentinel must be selected, and its task appointed. How the selection is
made, no one knows. But that such is done, there can be no question,
for the rest of the community acknowledge their sentinel, trust to it
for guarding the approaches of the nest, while they busy themselves
with the usual task of collecting food for the young and new material
for the nest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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