ANIMAL AND HUMAN PERCEPTION. 125 



Thus the new-born infant sucks the milk -which 

 serves for its nourishment from its mother's breast ; 

 it is impossible in this case that such a class of 

 elements should not be spontaneously developed ; the 

 child feels the nipple and adapts its mouth and mode 

 of breathing to it, while pressing the breast with its 

 hands to express the milk. If much in this operation 

 might be ascribed to reflex movements, yet in asso- 

 ciation with them, supplementing and rendering them 

 possible, there is an implicit perception of the exter- 

 nal phenomenon through the sense of touch, and he 

 becomes conscious of the object, and of its causative 

 power ; such power consisting in this case of its 

 capacity to satisfy his wants. In short, all animals, 

 man included, in every act of communication with 

 the world, exercise this faculty by means of the 

 three elements which constitute it. If we consider 

 the actions of infants, and still more of all young 

 animals, this truth will be vividly displayed. 



In common speech, even to this day, all men, both 

 learned and unlearned, speak of inanimate things as 

 if they had consciousness and intelligence. While 

 this mode of expression bears witness to the extremely 

 early origin of the general personification of natural 

 objects, it also shows that even now our intelligence 

 is not emancipated from such a habit, and our speech 



these reflex phenomena is due to the fact that in the long course 

 of ages their exercise has, through physiological evolution, first become 

 voluntary or spontaneous, and then unconscious. 



