E-text prepared by Turgut Dincer, Barry Abrahamsen,
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
()
from page images generously made available by
Internet Archive
(https://archive.org)
| Note: | Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/cu31924028931629 |
THE PLACE OF ANIMALS IN
HUMAN THOUGHT
The Emperor Akbar personally directing the tying up of a wild Elephant.
Tempera painting by Abu’l Fazl. (1597-98.)
Photographed for this work from the original in the India Museum.
PREFACE
AT the Congress held at Oxford in September,1908, those who heard Count Gobletd’Alviella’s address on the “Method and Scopeof the History of Religions” must have felt thethrill which announces the stirring of new ideas,when, in a memorable passage, the speaker asked“whether the psychology of animals has not equallysome relation to the science of religions?” At anyrate, these words came to me as a confirmation of thebelief that the study which has engaged my attentionfor several years, is rapidly advancing towards recognitionas a branch of the inquiry into what man ishimself. The following chapters on the differentanswers given to this question when extended fromman to animals, were intended, from the first, to forma whole, not complete, indeed, but perhaps fairlycomprehensive. I offer them now to the public withmy warmest acknowledgments to the scholars whosepublished works and, in some cases, private hintshave made my task possible. I also wish to thankthe Editor of the Contemporary Review for his kindness6in allowing me to reprint the part of this bookwhich appeared first in that periodical.
Some chapters refer rather to practice than topsychology, and others to