90 The Recapitulation Theory and Human Infancy 



Similarly the instincts do not constitute an epoch in human 

 development for they also rise early and persist through life, 

 speaking generally. But we have noted that the progression 

 from the native excitant to "meaning" seems to represent a 

 phylogenetic rehearsal, and we are confronted by the very signi- 

 ficant fact that the sequence from assimilative through intelligent 

 to conceptual learning is one that has been illustrated in the 

 accounts of the evolution of intelligence indifferently from the 

 animal series and the course of the child's intellectual progress. 

 Romanes, for instance, believed implicitly in the closest possible 

 correspondence of animal and childish modes of thought, up 

 to the point where human intelligence passes beyond the limit 

 of animal capacity. 42 And this assumption of a fundamental 

 likeness of childish to animal modes of learning is not confined 

 to older accounts but passes as a sort of commonplace in current 

 discussions of intelligence. It has been very generally held 

 since Romanes that the differences in intelligence whether ex- 

 hibited in animals, primitive men, or children are differences not 

 in kind but in degree, and there is undoubtedly implicit in these 

 views the thought that there exists some kind of scale or genetic 

 progression against which all acts of intelligence may be measured. 

 It has, in fact, been assumed, whether properly or not, that 

 intelligence in its representative character cannot differ in kind 

 but only in degree. For intelligence has been regarded as 

 yielding a direct acquaintance with the environing world, so 

 that a better acquaintance with this world could only mean a 

 more adequate relationship of the same kind. If, then, lower 

 animals have any intelligence they must possess some amount 

 of the same thing which higher animals and human beings 

 possess in larger measure. 43 The progressive character of the 



Mental Evolution in Man, passim. 



43 That its a priori attractiveness has favored this assumption is probably true. 

 An adequate treatment of it in the light of the available facts is beyond the possi- 

 bilities of this account. Yet a few obvious considerations may be noted. The low 

 type of learning involved in the dropping of useless movement or in threading a maze 

 may be effective without being representative, and so escape the implication of the 

 assumption in question. The possession of a free prehensile organ has been noted as 

 of first importance in the perception of objects and their qualities, and as a probable 

 source of difference between human or pithecoid and lower animal intelligence (com- 

 pare Washburn, Animal Mind, p. 279). And the contribution of the linguistic func- 

 tion to intelligence must be remarked, whatever this is. That much remains to be 

 said for the view here referred to, despite such considerations, is apparent. See, for 

 instance, Morgan, Animal Behavior, pp. 332 et seg. 



