ANIMAL SENSATION AND PERCEPTION. 49 



days, after so many ages of reflection, and through 

 the influence of contemporary science, is so far re- 

 moved from the primitive and simple exercise of his 

 psychical life, that he finds it difficult to picture to 

 himself the ancient and spontaneous conditions under 

 which his senses communicated with the world and 

 with himself. And therefore, without further con- 

 sideration, he thinks and believes that in primeval 

 times everything took place in the same way as it 

 does at present, and, which is a still greater error, 

 as it takes place in the lower animals. 



This identification of the complex machinery of 

 human perception with that of animals must not be 

 regarded as an absurd paradox, since, as we have 

 shown in an earlier work, they were originally and in 

 themselves the same.* By pursuing an easy mode of 

 observation, divested of prejudice, we may revert to 

 that primeval state of human nature, and may also 

 comprehend with truth and certainty the condition of 

 animals. For the animal nature has not ceased 

 to exist in man, and it may be discerned by those 

 who care to look for it ; and careful study, with the 

 constant aid of observation and experiment, will reveal 

 to us the hidden life of sensation and intelligence in 

 the lower animals. 



There is a continual self-consciousness in all 

 animals ; it is inseparable from all their internal and 



* Delia legr/e fondamentale della intelligenza nel regno animale 

 Milauo. Dumolard, 1877. 



