Let us listen for a moment to one of the most powerful of Mohammedan writers: 

“God has created the spirit of man out of a drop of his own light; its destiny is to return to him.  Do not deceive yourself with the vain imagination that it will die when the body dies.  The form you had on your entrance into this world, and your present form, are not the same; hence there is no necessity of your perishing, on account of the perishing of your body.  Your spirit came into this world a stranger, it is only sojourning, in a temporary home.  From the trials and tempests of this troublesome life, our refuge is in God.  In reunion with him we shall find eternal rest—­a rest without sorrow, a joy without pain, a strength without infirmity, a knowledge without doubt, a tranquil and yet an ecstatic vision of the source of life and light and glory, the source from which we came.”  So says the Saracen philosopher, Al-Gazzali (A.D. 1010).

In a stone the material particles are in a state of stable equilibrium; it may, therefore, endure forever.  An animal is in reality only a form through which a stream of matter is incessantly flowing.  It receives its supplies, and dismisses its wastes.  In this it resembles a cataract, a river, a flame.  The particles that compose it at one instant have departed from it the next.  It depends for its continuance on exterior supplies.  It has a definite duration in time, and an inevitable moment comes in which it must die.

In the great problem of psychology we cannot expect to reach a scientific result, if we persist in restricting ourselves to the contemplation of one fact.  We must avail ourselves of all accessible facts.  Human psychology can never be completely resolved except through comparative psychology.  With Descartes, we must inquire whether the souls of animals be relations of the human soul, less perfect members in the same series of development.  We must take account of what we discover in the intelligent principle of the ant, as well as what we discern in the intelligent principle of man.  Where would human physiology be, if it were not illuminated by the bright irradiations of comparative physiology?

Brodie, after an exhaustive consideration of the facts, affirms that the mind of animals is essentially the same as that of man.  Every one familiar with the dog will admit that that creature knows right from wrong, and is conscious when he has committed a fault.  Many domestic animals have reasoning powers, and employ proper means for the attainment of ends.  How numerous are the anecdotes related of the intentional actions of the elephant and the ape!  Nor is this apparent intelligence due to imitation, to their association with man, for wild animals that have no such relation exhibit similar properties.  In different species, the capacity and character greatly vary.  Thus the dog is not only more intelligent, but has social and moral qualities that the cat does not possess; the former loves his master, the latter her home.