Basing his action on this conclusion, he
remained on the porch and finished his breakfast. You and I, and
even Mr. Burroughs, perform acts of reasoning precisely similar to
this every day in our lives. How Mr. Burroughs will explain Glen's
action by the instinctive theory is beyond me. In wildest fantasy,
even, my brain refuses to follow Mr. Burroughs into the primeval
forest where Glen's dim ancestors, to the tooting of automobile
horns, were fixing into the heredity of the breed the particular
instinct that would enable Glen, a few thousand years later, capably
to cope with automobiles.
Dr. C. J. Romanes tells of a female chimpanzee who was taught to
count straws up to five. She held the straws in her hand, exposing
the ends to the number requested. If she were asked for three, she
held up three. If she were asked for four, she held up four. All
this is a mere matter of training. But consider now, Mr. Burroughs,
what follows. When she was asked for five straws and she had only
four, she doubled one straw, exposing both its ends and thus making
up the required number.
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