120 MYTH AND SCIENCE. 



namelj 7 , of a phenomenon, a living subject, and a 

 real power. The exercise of animal apprehension 

 is the rapid, necessary, and perpetual concentration 

 into a single image of the phenomenon, subject, and 

 cause ; that is, given the perception of a phenomenon, 

 the animal endows it, with respect to himself, with 

 consciousness, and consequently with real power. 



In fact, the faculty of perception cannot be exer- 

 cised in any other way, nor can it consist of any 

 other elements. In nature, the sensible qualities of 

 things are all resolved into general and special phe- 

 nomena, appearances, and extrinsic forms, as far as 

 animal and human intuition, and the character of 

 the subject which perceives and feels them, are con- 

 cerned ; and they are perceived just so far as we and 

 as animals are able to communicate by means of our 

 senses with the world and with ourselves. A phe- 

 nomenon and an intrinsic form signify, at the 

 moment of perception, the thing, the object which 

 the conditions of our senses enable us to perceive, 

 and the intrinsic power of this phenomenon implies 

 a cause. Natural phenomena and beings are thus 

 reciprocally linked together as causes and effects, an 

 effect becoming in its turn the cause of a subsequent 

 fact ; that is, when we consider things in themselves, 

 and not relatively to the animal or man who appre- 

 hends them. 



If, therefore, there are in animal consciousness 

 and intelligence three elements of apprehension, 



