x A Dog pointing. 191 



hindered, whether by a voluntary or an involuntary 

 cause. This counteraction of the impulse to close on 

 the prey is the germ of voluntary self-control; this 

 heightening of consciousness is the germ of attention, 

 and ultimately of the power to direct thought at will, 

 and of the consciousness of self. In this pause, 

 produced by the opposition between the sensory 

 impulse to rush forward and the mental determina- 

 tion to hold back, is contained the germ of all the 

 self-conscious and voluntary life which constitutes 

 Mind. 1 



This may appear fanciful, and it is not advanced 

 as an established truth. But, though the first germs 

 of attention and voluntary determination are prob- 

 ably to be found in such creatures as ants and 

 spiders, it is scarcely an exaggeration to say that the 

 evolution which I have endeavoured to describe may 

 be witnessed in that very common though most 

 interesting sight, a dog pointing. His stillness is 

 visibly not that of rest, but of strain, as between two 

 evenly -balanced impulses, one urging him forward 

 and the other holding him back. Darwin suggests 

 that this remarkable habit which, like other acquired 

 habits, has in some degree become hereditary is 

 only the exaggeration of the pause of a carnivorous 

 animal going to rush on its prey ; and he adds, that 

 probably no one would have ever thought of teaching 



1 The foregoing has been suggested by Mr. Sally's re- 

 view of Wundt's Physiological Psychology in Mind of January 

 1886. 



