Evening star., 1924-05-18

most of us do not know how
to think. We think we think,
but we don't. We are now
able to locate with something like
certainty where the mind is And
u appears that is away down-in
fact, Is sinking into a bottomless
aoyss. What we took for the mind
IS only an insignificant part of it, a
poor glimmer of intelligence, a rush
light floating on the surface of an
unknown depth. Underneath the
mind turks the subconscious, and
away down under this, again, the
subliminal and under that is the
primitive complex, and farther down,
fifty feet in the mud, is the cosmic
intelligence.
oue what is now an assured fact
Is that, while human beings have
only just begun to learn about these
things, the animals have known about
mem and been using them for wears.
IL seems that the caterpillar doesn't
thlnk at all! He gave it up long ago:
me- like the criminal, reacts" The
common ant (Formica americana) in
stead OF working all the time, as we
thought 1T did, does not work at all.
IL merely has a community complex
IN the lobes of one of its feet. What
we otok TO be the play of the young
lamb dambeas piccoIa) is simply a
chemical movement of it's tail under
the influence of one or more stimuli
We can't begin thinking until we
are prepared to begin all over again
hItil
from its basis up. Herein lies the
peculiar Importance of animal psy-
chology in the new wave of mentality.
To this very large space will be
allotted in the manual which L am
preparing.
The object of the entire work.
need hardly say-will not be to make
money, but to perform a service to
the community. To make this certain.
the word service" will be stamped
in gilt letters on each volume of
special or service edition" of the
book-sold to servants.
Such is the object of the manual. in
addition to which it will have an aim.
And this aim will be to bring within
the reach of even the richest the
essential facts about the great move
ment of mind which is rapidly trans
forming the globe on which we stand
or sit.
Already the ground has been brok-
en-. Careful Investigations of the
thought-complex of the hen, the
worm and the bee have revealed to
the world something of the wonder
full mentality that was formerly rude
ly classed as instinct" We now
know that the bee could not con-
struct her honeycomb in the particu-
lar form which she uses had she
not some knowledge, however modest,
of the mathematical law of the max
imum cubic content. Where she got
1T. we do not as yet know. But we
hope 20 find out. Our psychological
investigators are sitting among the
bees, following the hens and associ-
ating with the worms, and adding
daily to our store of knowledge
MY own researches in this direction
are not of wide extent. But
have endeavored to fit myself for dis
cussing the subject by undertaking
the study of one particular animal.
make here no claim to originality of
method and readily admit that my
researches are based upon-I may say,
are initiated from-the best models
of work in this direction. L selected
as my subject the common hoopoo
partly because no one had investi-
gated the hoopoo before and partly
because good fortune threw the op-
portunity in my way.
In other words, the observations
which / have carried on in regard to
the mentality and habits of the hoo
poo fall within that large portion of
the new mentality which deals with |
the mind of animals. I should be |
ungrateful if l did not express my |
obligation to the authors of "The |
Play of Animals" THE Behavior of |
the Toad" The Love Affairs of the |
Lobster" and other well known man |
uals of this class. But, SO far as |
am aware, 1 am the first to subject |
the hoopoo to the same minute scru- |
tiny which has been so successfully |