CHAP, xv.] THE PEDIGREE AND ORIGIN OF THE CAT. 529 



Human ideas are " true," in so far as they correspond with really 

 existing things external to the human mind. But really existing, 

 external things are themselves " true/' in so far as they correspond 

 with the eternal, archetypal or prototypal ideas of God which are 

 their exemplar cause. 



The wondrously varied world of phenomena which presents itself 

 on every side to the human senses, is to those senses hut a confused 

 mixture of sounds and colours, odours, tastes, and touches. It is 

 the intellect which puts ideal order into the sensuous chaos, recog- 

 nising subjectively that external order which in fact exists objec- 

 tively. Amongst the orderly phenomena which cultivation enables 

 the intellect to apprehend, are the variously related ideal concep- 

 tions species, genera, families, orders, and classes which have 

 their objective reality and foundation in the actually existing charac- 

 ters of concrete material objects. "We are able, moreover, not only 

 to recognize that these ideas exist, but also to recognize that they 

 form a hierarchy of conceptions. We thus come to apprehend that 

 an idea embodied in some large group of creatures some order is 

 carried to a more thorough and definite expression in some one 

 family of that order, and to a still more intense degree in some 

 genus of that family. It is thus that we recognize in all beasts 

 the concrete embodiment of the mammalian idea, and in the car- 

 nivorous type, a special, perhaps the highest, expression of that idea, 

 which is carried out to its fullest manifestation in the typical FelidaB. 



We see then that the feline form is the most complete expression 

 yet realized of that exemplar ideal which is less fully expressed by the 

 carnivorous order considered as a whole. Thus viewed, the creatures 

 to the special consideration of which this work is devoted, are seen to 

 exhibit multiform relations of a very elevated character. Evolved 

 through the action of antecedent organisms (of increasing specializa- 

 tion of structure) as their efficient cause, they have for their final cause* 

 the external realization in the material creation of one of those proto- 

 typal ideas which are the several exemplar causes of the world of 

 organic life, and which have eternally preceded every creative act. 

 Interesting then as the animals which have here occupied us are to 

 the zoologist, the physiologist, the geographer, the geologist, and 

 the psychologist, they are most of all interesting to the philosopher. 

 The true philosopher will never rest satisfied with a knowledge of 

 material and efficient causes alone, but will ever seek to obtain 

 what glimpses he may of those other causes which his reason tells 

 him can never be absent from a world which is the outcome of a 

 Divine Intelligence. Only at last will he rest satisfied, when, 

 having traced as far as he may, the series of secondary causes, he is 

 able confidently to refer to the evident though hidden action of the 

 Great Author of Nature. Reason exhibits to us the whole Cosmos 

 as proceeding from Him, and only when the study of his creatures 

 ends by leading the student back to Him from whom they pro- 

 ceeded, can that study be said to be " rational " in the highest 

 sense of that word. Then only is it truly worthy of that admirable 



