The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-05-26
EVENING SESSION.
Professor lie Conte on the Differ
ence Between Men and
Animals.


The evening session was the most nu-
merously attended that the congress has
held People were wedged together in the
seats and on the platform, and the aisles
were blocked. The whole mass of human
ity was a waving sea of fans and pro-
grammes-even the men famed them
selves, for the heat was intense.
Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper introduced the
first speaker, Professor Joseph lie Conte of
the University of California, who was to
speak OF THE Psychical Relation of Man
to the Animals"
The professor, who was greeted with
warm applause, opened his remarks by
saying he owed an apology to the ladies
because his subject was not closely related
to the business of the congress, but he had
been forced to choose between not speak
ing at all and Introducing something that
had been written for a previous occasion.
Il must also beg your pardon because my
paper is too long and too heavy. | have to
rely on your patience and your intelli-
gence, and know l can depend on both"
Having paid this pretty compliment the
speaker plunged into his subject:
Life is correlated with other forces.of nature.
The border-land which SO long separated BIZ
ology from psychology has also been crossed in
the onward march OF science. My object is to
touch some subject on this border-land. In
previous writings l tried to show that we may
conceive man as having arisen from inorganic
nature. wish in this paper to show what is
the essential difference between the spirit OF
man and his intelligence. 1t touches art, re-
Ggion and science. Under the new light thrown
on every avenue of thought by evolution It
must be approached in new way.
In the past man, body and spirit, has been
studied TOO much apart from nature. This is
no longer possible. Anatomy could not become
scientific till it became comparative. So also
psychology can never become scientific till it
grows into comparative psychology. Modern
science seeks, wrongly, l think, to minimize
the differences between men and animals. The
older thinkers realized the difference between
them too much. l wish to put my finger on
the dividing line, when man emerges out of
animality. 1t is difficult problem and all L
hope to accomplish is to contribute some
thing toward its solution.
First language-this has always been re-
gsrded as one OF the most distinctive charac-
teristlcs OF man. But parrots can be taught to
speak, and dogs to understand what is said to
them Now what is the difference between
their understanding of speech and mans? I
sure when the parrot says "Polly wants a
cracker" she means what she says, In sense
all animals talk. The parrot has learned TO
associate certain words with things, but does
not the child by frequent colloquation also
learn to associate words with things in the
same way?
The child learns to understand the meaning
OF words and makes her com binations-wordS
are combined into phrases, phrases into sem
teLees and sentences into complex sentences.
This first stage animals might attain, ii they
ofintelligence they could not advance beyond
that stage.
The speaker showed the difference be-
tween the songs of birds and the music
produced by intelligent human artists.
The former simply produces sounds by i'm
pulse or instinct; the latter are gifted with
sense perception, can distinguish between con-
sonant and dissonant sounds, and can combine
sounds into chords and finally make advanced
music.
no ~ ri
light. But the sympathy OF the spirit of man
with the spirit of nature-it is the pleasure
we take IN the gamboling of lambs or the
laughter of children.
We come now TO speak of the power under
lying these characteristic results. What is the
origin of knowledge, which characterizes man
from the animals2 First we should be able to
distinguish intelligence from instinct in ami
mails. There is profound difference between
the Intelligence OF men and that of animals
There is a sense perception and an intellectual
perception, and all rational knowledge is
founded on this latter. In a word, animals
perceive things only, man perceiyes not only
relations embodied IN these things, but alb
stracts them also. Now, since all knowledge is
founded on concepts only, 1t follows that what
in animals seems like Intelligence is really
only instinct.
Professor LIE Conte spoke for over an
hour. AT the conclusion of his address
Mrs. Sarah B. Cooper announced that there
would be no discussion, as to discuss such
a learned paper would be "beyond the
powers of those on the platform at least. T"
and when the laugh which greeted this
graceful admission had subsidized, Mrs.
Charlotte Perkins Stetson read warm
greeting from an anonymous friend of the
congress in far-away Australia, and then
Rev. Mia Topper Maynard made an adj
dress on 'Drummond's Great Thought in
the Ascent of Man."
Half decade ago this author in his simple
monograph riveted the attention OF the
English-speaking world upon the oft-forgotten
but universally accepted principle OF Christian
ity-Love-the supreme fact and the supreme
test in human character.
In the ascent of Man. Mr.. Drummond en-
deavors to show as a scientific fact that this
thing in the world of human Interest,
but also the greatest factor in the
world OF natural evolution. He would show
that not only does religion reveal that God is
love-" but that nature also in the Utmost pro-
cesses of her development has just as plainly
revealed that love is the alpha and omega of
The significance OF the problem is yaster than
that of any other OF which [ can conceive.
Upon it depends the inspiration OF those who
strive for the welfare of humanity. Upon 1t
the life of high moral achievement depends for
dignity and meaning. Upon it rest the ago
nized hopes of those who, yearning for a solu
found at all, in the revelation of the book OF
nature. During the last two score years the
fact of evolution as the method by which the
world is, as it has come TO be, has more and
more taken possession of human thought for
the last twenty years (since Tyndaps Belfast
address); the thoughtful minds of the world
have been led to see, also, that this evolution
airy creation has not been the mechanical work
of all outside creator, but that nature in its
growth has been the living manifestation of an
INFINITE indwelling divinity. The divine I'M
manence, the omDipresence of God-rhis has
come TO be understood through modern science
as II had never been before. Science has made
men reel mat man and nature must be one IN
meaning, and that man and nature must to-
gether be a revelation of God.
This doubt OF Gods love because of natures
lovelcssness is no fantastic bubble, but q
doubt terribly real in the hearts of many earn
est souls. Against this assertion that nature
shrieks against the creed of love, Mr.. Drum
mond marshals a great array of facts from
natural history to show that nature is never
mindful of ethical ends, and that no factor
nas been so potent III the development of the
higher orders in the animal world as unselfish-
ness.