Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1868-07-19

tax the powers OF belief lmmOderatelyI
we think we may afford to treat this as a
mere joke.
DIR. Darwin tells US that there was, not
many years ago, an old monkey at Exc
ter Change that had lost all his teeth.
Visitors were in the habit of giving him
nuts but the old fellow was unable to
crack them. He was furnished with a
stone, and would thus break them on the
floor of his prison. Crows and rocks
have been known to rise in the air with
a mussel in their mouth, and to drop it
on a rock in order to break it, 50 as to
enable the bird to feed on its contents.
''I have heard a jaekdaw, says Jessie,
''who was seen to drop stones in hole
in which there was some water, which it
could not reach till the water was raised
sufficiently high to enable it to quench
its thirst" II have also known, says
the same entertaining naturalist, "a cat,
when she was shut up in a room, and
wanted to get out, ring the bell and
make her escape when the servant an
swered it" Another cat, in a house
where it was the custom to ring the bell
before the meals, one day CHANGED to be
shut up at dinner-time. Some hours
after, when she was let out, she ran to
the room where they used to put her
food, but it was not there. Soon after,
the people heard a bell ringing, and
came to see what was the matter. When
the door ives opened, what was their sur
prise to see the cat clinging to the bell
rope. The fact was, that puss wanted
her dinner, and having always seen that
it came after the ringing of the bell, she
thought she would ring it herself.
Monkeys are very fond of birds eggs.
In some countries where these animals
abound, birds, in order to preserve their
eggs. will make their nests at the end of
the slender branches of trees, so that
the monkeys cannot reach them. Wood
peckers will carefully remove the bits Of
wood which they break off a tree in
making hole in it for their nest-eyi
IDENTIFY to prevent persons discovering
their abode. For the same reason many
birds carefully remove the excrements
their young from the neighbOrhOOd
off the nest. Man himself could not be
more calculating or far-reaching. There
is a notorious instance on record Of a
dog, which, slipping its collar at night,
roamed round the adjoining fields and
worried the sheep, and afterwards,
washing its jaws in a stream, returned
home, re-adjusted its collar, and keeping
within its kennel, threw off suspicion
Here we have not Onl Y an impulse, but
also a multiplication of actions arising
from inward power and intelligence
unaceompanied by perception, or the
operation of any outward agency. An
ourang-Outang in Paris, when left alone
always tried to escape, and as he could
not escape, and as he could not reach
the lock of the door, he carried a stOO
to the spot; this being removed, he
took another, and another, and mount
inc on it, renewed his efforts. Reason
alone could have prompted this act
and besides, there must have been I
combination of ideas to have enabled i
to get the stool to assist itselfin opening
, the lock-to copy what it had seen it.
! keeper do; namely, to unlock the door
! and to move a stool about as he wanted 1t
Sense is the doorway of the mind tn,
vestibule through which pass the pie
! lures of the world So far as sense openi
3 up, by virtue of its own completeness
: and activity, a channel for the fux o
r thought, so far are animals superior t.
! man but as the mind is the primary, anC
sense the secondary instrument, so witt
acuteness Of sense in the lower animals
f we do not find an equivalent aeutenes
l of reason, and by so much as the senses
: of man are cultivated, by so much is tn,
! mental reasoning faculty robbed of it
t intrinsic power 1t is not the keennes
: of the sight which gives character ant
tone to the idea, but rather the power o
3 mind which gives a positive character t,
g the picture Hence, although sense j
a the medium of the minds communica
= tions, it is not the instrument of its pro
eesses of reason, not the measure of it
7 intrinsic force. The Calmucks can tell
by their sense of smell, whether fox i
. III HIS tdIlu OF uOl. Dub tfEL AAAlo AZ ulE
e ness of sense in man, great as it certainl,
/. is. is as nothing compared with that o
t animals Camels passing through des
0 ert can scent water at the DISTANCE Of tw'
3 or three miles; the mules in Soutl
:. America scent it at the distance of tw
q or three leagues. The carrier horses o
; Switzerland hear the fall of the avalanch
n and warn their masters by their terror
e of the impending danger. Withouteye
2 or apertures of any kind for the admis
5 sion of light, the polypus will alway
$ distinguish the animalcula on which
Y feeds. Bats will thread their way aceu
5 rately through innumerable meshes an
= complicated threads even after their eye
n have been put out. So far the anima
5 takes precedence Of the man, sense be
q ginning and ending with its exercise
4 But in the animal, the mental exercise
It where it is even vivid and striking,
It still confined, limited and subservient t
o but one end. The dog remembers hi
master and the members of the famil
. after the lapse of many years, and " it
;; perhaps owing to the absence of menti
n sequence, the comparative negatiOn {
: any connected process of thought, whie
. gives him that tenacity of memory an
: extraordinary perfection of the senses
y according to the old law, that power be
n ING checked in one direction, will devel
= op itself in another" 1t is related of
= dog which his master took with him o
. Journey of upwards of three hundre
! miles, through country almost dest
tute of roads, which occupied thre
= weeks to traverse, the dog lost his mas
! ter; yet, in spite of the vast distanc,
. found his way back to his home. Th
II dog of little Savoyard being sold an
carried to Rome, was shut up for safet,
% but it soon succeeded in making its ei
cape, aud reached its former home, aft'
n few days, in a most emaciated state.
,e far we see beautifully marked resen
!, blance between man and the brute, an
- it must be but hollow vanity whic
e shuts the ear against the acceptance
h these truths, and seeks to exclude II
Is lower animals from the participation
N reason.