THE PERCEPTION OF SIGHT. 273 



cussed in writings on sesthetics, where they play an important 

 part as Intuition, Unconscious Ratiocination, Sensible Intel- 

 ligibility, and such obscure designations. There lies under all 

 these phrases the false assumption that the mental operations 

 we are discussing take place in an undefined, obscure, half-con- 

 scious fashion ; that they are, so to speak, mechanical operations, 

 and thus subordinate to conscious thought, which can be ex- 

 pressed in language. I do not believe that any difference in 

 kind between the two functions can be proved. The enormous 

 superiority of knowledge which has become ripe for expression 

 in language, is sufficiently explained by the fact that, in the 

 first place, speech makes it possible to collect together the ex- 

 perience of millions of individuals and thousands of generations, 

 to preserve them safely, and by continual verification to make 

 them gradually more and more certain and universal ; while, in 

 the second place, all deliberately combined actions of mankind, 

 and so the greatest part of human power, depend on language. 

 In neither of these respects can mere familiarity with phenomena 

 (das Kennen} compete with the knowledge of them which can 

 be communicated by speech ( das Wissen] ; and yet it does not 

 follow of necessity that the one kind of knowledge should be of 

 a different nature from the other, or less clear in its operation. 



The supporters of Intuitive Theories of Sensation often 

 appeal to the capabilities of new-born animals, many of which 

 show themselves much more skilful than a human infant. It 

 is quite clear that an infant, in spite of the greater size of its 

 brain, and its power of mental development, learns with extreme 

 slowness to perform the simplest tasks; as, for example, to 

 direct its eyes to an object or to touch what it sees with its 

 hands. Must we not conclude that a child has much more to 

 learn than an animal which is safely guided, but also restricted, 

 by its instincts? It is said that the calf sees the udder and 

 goes after it, but it admits of question whether it does not simply 

 smell it, and make those movements which bring it nearer to 

 the scent. 1 At any rate, the child knows nothing of the mean- 

 ing of the visual image presented by its mother's breast. It 

 1 See Darwin on the Expression of the Emotions, p. 47. TK. 



1. T 



