(Eumaee, sapientia non uni tantum competit, sed quœcunque vivunt etiam intellectum habent.) Porphyry likewise endeavours to show at length that all animals have understanding. [1]
Now, that it should be so, follows necessarily from the intellectual character of perception. All animals, even down to the very lowest, must have Understanding that is, knowledge of the causal law, although they have it in very different degrees of delicacy and of clearness ; at any rate they must have as much of it as is required for perception by their senses ; for sensation without Understanding would be not only a useless, but a cruel gift of Nature. No one, who has himself any intelligence, can doubt the existence of it in the higher animals. But at times it even becomes undeniably evident that their knowledge of causality is actually à priori, and that it does not arise from the habit of seeing one thing follow upon another. A very young puppy will not, for instance, jump off a table, because he foresees what would be the consequence. Not long ago I had some large curtains put up at my bed room window, which reached down to the floor, and were drawn aside from the centre by means of a string. The first morning they were opened I was surprised to see my dog, a very intelligent poodle, standing quite perplexed, and looking upwards and sidewards for the cause of the phenomenon : that is, he was seeking for the change which he knew à priori must have taken place. Next day the same thing happened again.—But even the lowest animals have perception—consequently Understanding—down to the aquatic polypus, which has no distinct organs of sensation, yet wanders from leaf to leaf on its waterplant, while clinging to it with its feelers, in search of more light.
Nor is there, indeed, any difference, beyond that of
- ↑ Porph. "De abstinentia, - iii. 21.
