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COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 271
brain in similar order which corresponds to this result of
external observation. (According to Flourens and Fr.
Cuvier.) l
Among the reptiles, serpents are the most intelli
gent, for they may even be trained ; this is so, because they
are beasts of prey and propagate more slowly than the rest
especially the venomous ones. And here also, as with the
physical weapons, we find the will everywhere as the prius ;
its equipment, the intellect, as the posterius. Beasts of prey
do not hunt, nor do foxes thieve, because they have more
intelligence ; on the contrary, they have more intelligence,
just as they have stronger teeth and claws too, because
they wished to live by hunting and thieving. The fox even
made up at once for his inferiority in muscular power and
strength of teeth by the extraordinary subtility of his un
derstanding. Our thesis is singularly illustrated by the case
of the bird dodo or dronte (didus ineptus) on the island
of Mauritius, whose species, it is well known, has died out,
and which, as its Latin name denotes, was exceedingly
stupid, and this explains its disappearance ; so that here
it seems indeed as if Nature had for once gone too far
in her lex parsimonice and thereby in a sense brought
forth an abortion in the species, as she so often does in the
individual, which was unable to subsist, precisely because
it was an abortion. If, on this occasion, anyone were to
raise the question as to whether Nature ought not to have
provided insects with at least sufficient intelligence to pre
vent them from flying into the flame of a candle, our
answer would be : most certainly ; only she did not know
that men would make candles and light them, and natura
nihil agit frustra. Insect intelligence is therefore only in
sufficient where the surroundings are artificial. 2
1 The most intelligent birds are also birds of prey, wherefore many ot
them,especially falcons, are highly susceptible of training. [Add. to 3rd ed.]
a That the negroes should have become the special victims of the
slave-trade, is evidently a consequence of the inferiority of their intelli