The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Dawn of Reason, by James Weir

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: The Dawn of Reason
or, Mental Traits in the Lower Animals

Author: James Weir

Release Date: May 25, 2007 [EBook #21608]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DAWN OF REASON ***

Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Anne Storer and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

Transcriber's Note: Inconsistencies in hyphenation left in as per
original text.

* * * * *

THE
DAWN OF REASON

OR

MENTAL TRAITS IN THE
LOWER ANIMALS

BY
JAMES WEIR, JR., M.D.

New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD.
1899

_All rights reserved_

* * * * *

COPYRIGHT, 1899,
BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith
Norwood Mass. U.S.A.

* * * * *

To My Father

WHO, WHILE NOT A SCIENTIST, HAS YET TAKEN

AN INTELLIGENT AND APPRECIATIVE

INTEREST IN MY WORK

THIS BOOK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED

* * * * *

PREFACE

Most works on mind in the lower animals are large and ponderous volumes,
replete with technicalities, and unfit for the general reader; therefore
the author of this book has endeavored to present the evidences of mental
action, in creatures lower than man, in a clear, simple, and brief form.
He has avoided all technicalities, and has used the utmost brevity
consistent with clearness and accuracy. He also believes that metaphysics
has no place in a discussion of psychology, and has carefully refrained
from using this once powerful weapon of psychologists.

Many of the data used by the authors of more pretentious works are
second-hand or hearsay; the author of this treatise, however, has no
confidence in the accuracy of such material, therefore he has not made
use of any such data. His material has been thoroughly sifted, and the
reader may depend upon the absolute truth of the evidence here
presented.

The author does not claim infallibility; some of his conclusions may be
erroneous;