MAN AND OTHER ANIMALS 



translating them into terms of conscious pain. 

 This translation is almost instantaneous, so that 

 we do not as a rule recognize any connecting link 

 between the two things. When a wasp stings 

 your hand, you start and you probably cry out, 



at the same time feeling pain. 



. * $ 



Indeed, looking back upon this incident, you 



ordinarily suppose that the reason why you^^^ ^ 

 started and cried out was that you consciously 

 felt the pain; and this mistake for it is a mis- 

 take leads you into the further error of sup- 

 posing that a dog who similarly jumped and 

 yelped in the same circumstances consciously felt 

 the pain in exactly the same way. 



Indeed, it is very hard to realize the distinction 

 between mental consciousness and bodily sensa- 

 tion, or the great difference which may separate 

 other animals' " feelings " from ours. We have 

 never been in the habit of supposing that there 

 was any distinction or difference, because all our 

 ideas about pain and suffering and the words in 

 which we express them are based on the notion 

 that the feeling of pain is necessarily conscious 

 and inseparable from the suffering of injury. 

 We get just a glimpse of the separation between 

 them, however, in cases of urgent peril or des- 

 perate struggle. 



Everyone who has been in sudden deadly peril 



[5] 



