372 



THE CAT. 



[CHAP. xi. 



Great ambiguity and confusion exist as to LANGUAGE, six kinds of 

 which may be distinguished: 



(1) Sounds which are neither articulate nor rational, such as cries 



of pain, or the murmur of a mother to her infant. 



(2) Sounds which are articulate hut not rational, such as the 



talk of parrots, or of certain idiots, who will repeat, without 

 comprehending, every phrase they hear. 



(3) Sounds which are rational hut not articulate, such as the 



inarticulate ejaculations by which we sometimes express 

 assent to, or dissent from, given propositions. 



(4) Sounds which are both rational and articulate, constituting 



true " speech." 



(5) Gestures which do not answer to rational conceptions, but are 



merely the manifestations of emotions and feelings. 



(6) Gestures which do answer to rational conceptions, and are 



therefore " external," but not " oral," manifestations of the 

 mental word. Such are many of the gestures of deaf mutes, 

 who, being incapable of articulating words, have invented or 

 acquired a language of gesture. 



4. But that the true nature of the cat-mind may be the better 

 appreciated, it is desirable to recognize distinctly what are those 

 HUMAN MENTAL POWERS, of the possession of which by the cat no 

 evidence exists. They are the following ones : 



(1) A power of apprehending abstract ideas gathered from con- 



crete objects, such as the ideas, being, substance, unity, truth, 

 cause, humanity, etc. abstraction. 



(2) A power of apprehending external objects as such, and 



recognizing that they exist in truth intellectual perception. 



(3) A power of directly perceiving our own existence self- 



consciousness. 



(4) A power of turning the mind back upon what has been 



directly apprehended reflexion . 



(5) A power of actively searching for, and so recalling past 



thoughts or experiences intellectual memory. 



(6) A power of uniting our intellectual apprehensions into an 



explicit affirmation or negation- -judgment. 



(7) A power of combining ideas, and so giving rise to the percep- 



tion of new truths thus arrived at intellectual synthesis and 

 induction. 



(8) A power of mentally dissecting ideas, and so gaining other 



new truths, and also of apprehending truths as necessarily 

 involved in judgments previously made intellectual analysis, 

 deduction and ratiocination. 



(9) A power of apprehending some truths as absolutely, positively 



and universally necessary intellectual intuition. 



(10) Powers of pleasurable or painful excitement on the occur- 



rence of intellectual apprehensions higher, or intellectual 

 emotions. 



(11) A power of giving expression to our ideas by external bodily 



signs rational language. 



