Nature of Memory in Brute Animals. 361 



acts of brutes, that they actually did form permanent abstract ideas 

 of qualities ; and such indeed would be the case were their ideas 

 of quality attained by a free intelligence, and not by instinctive 

 perception. The Dog, however, has evidently no idea of the 

 quality of sociability, nor of that of obedience, any more than the 

 Cat, yet he acts unconsciously from perceptions in which these 

 qualities are essentially present. It cannot be supposed that either 

 the Dog or the Horse reflect upon, "or have any abstract ideas of 

 distances, yet by perception they measure their leap, and by the 

 aid of the spontaneous presence of past ideas, which become pre- 

 sent to aid the perception for the purpose of immediate action, 

 they correct their errors in this and other instances. A Dog who 

 has to leap a brook, looks for the narrowest part of the stream ; his 

 ideas of former leaps spontaneously recur, and by present percep- 

 tion he is enabled even to compare the distance as suited to his 

 ability; this work of comparison he is enabled to effect by a 

 contingent instinct, an influent intuitive perception which passes 

 off into action ; nor can he afterwards call up an idea of the act ; 

 although whenever similar actual circumstances again induce the 

 presence of the instinctive perception, the identical idea may 

 spontaneously recur to assist the discrimination then to be effected ; 

 when the whole process again becomes quiescent. If in the in- 

 tervals of action spontaneous ideas of sensible objects pass in re- 

 view in the animal's mind, they are in this state most probably 

 a mere succession of images : it is only when roused to action by 

 some instinctive desire, that the perception necessary for com- 

 parison appears to present itself in force. He has no essential 

 knowledge of the relative difference between a brook and a green 

 "field, — between a long and a short distance, — between a Hare and 

 one of his own species, although he pursues the former with the 

 most acute discrimination ; — between hard and soft, although he 

 distinguishes readily between a piece of meat and a stone. — But 

 an essential knowledge of these differences is the inevitable result 

 of genuine reflection : he perceives therefore, but does not reflect. 

 The means of accomplishing the end of his nature become present 

 to him in the form of perception, momentarily accommodated 

 to the instinctive desire which is present, according to its strength 



