1812, July 19th: A. D. M. H. F. S. A., A Description of More Than Three Hundred Animals, Including Quadrupeds, Birds, Fishes, Serpents, and Insects, “A Description of Beasts”, Book I: “Of Quadrupeds, or Four-Footed Beasts”, page 60, “The Elephant” The Elephant…[i]s reckoned the most intellectual animal in the creation after man. […] Nature, always impartial in the distribution of her gifts, has given this bulky quadruped a quick instinct nearly approaching to reason, in compensation for the uncouthness and ill-shapedness of his body.
Source: wiktionary