242 EVOLUTION AND MAN S PLACE IN NATURE&quot; 



compounding, and enlarging that belongs only to the 

 province of reflection or thought. l As to the animals, 

 Locke s positions are these : I think beasts compare 

 not their ideas further than some sensible circum 

 stances annexed to the objects themselves. Those 

 who have most closely observed the intelligence of 

 dogs, and have habitually worked with them, will agree 

 with Locke s statements. Dr. Romanes, however, 

 thinks that there is a comparing and compounding 

 of ideas by the higher mammals, though these 

 exercises do not rise into the province of reflection 

 or thought. And he regards Locke as favouring this 

 conclusion. But Locke s statement is in these terms : 

 though they take in, and retain together, several 

 combinations of simple ideas, as possibly the shape, 

 smell, and voice of his master make up the complex 

 idea a dog has of him, or rather are so many distinct 

 marks by which he knows him ; yet I do not think 

 they do of themselves ever compound them and make 

 complex ideas. 2 If the reader turn back only a little 

 way, he will find additional statements of moment. 

 When dealing with considerations concerning our 

 simple ideas, 3 Locke identifies such idea with any 

 perception in the mind consequent on an object 

 affecting our senses, which may be taken notice of 

 by our discerning faculty, as a real positive idea in 

 the understanding. And when Locke comes to speak 

 of discerning and other operations of the mind/ 4 in 

 that chapter from which Dr. Romanes quotes, he 

 opens the chapter thus, Another faculty we may 

 take notice of in our minds is that of discerning and 



1 Romanes s Mental Evolution in Man, p. 29. 



2 Essay, Bk. u. chap. xi. 7. 3 Chap. viii. 4 Chap. xi. 



