90 Chapter V. 



of the same species, a combined "sense image" which 

 results from the prevailing scent perception and from 

 a former sight image will immediately be produced in 

 his brain. We may call this new representation a 

 memory image, if we chiefly consider the reproductive 

 activity, or an image of the fancy, if we choose to dwell 

 on the combining power of sensile perception. But 

 the fancy of animals does not posses the procreative 

 power of selection of the human fancy, nor its produc- 

 tive quality of reconstruction. There are no artists 

 among animals nor geniuses of art as among men. 1 Nev- 

 ertheless we may justly apply the term "fancy" to the 

 combining activity of their sensitive imagination. Now, 

 what does this image of the memory or of the fancy, 

 represent to the dog ? Perhaps a hare in general ? By 

 no means. Its object is a concrete and individual hare, 

 which can be called "general" only in an improper 

 sense, in as far as its individual features are obscurely 

 and indefinitely outlined, but never general in the proper 

 acceptance of the term. For it is absolutely impossible 

 for any sensitive power of perception to represent only 

 the specific properties and omit all individual differ- 

 ences. 



The fact, that this falsely called "general' 1 sense 

 image is indistinct in individual features, explains why 

 the dog chases any hare he happens to come across, and 

 not only this or that individual animal. Still, it is cer- 

 tainly true, that the sensile imagination of man and 



l ) The activity of the sensitive imagination displayed in the case of 

 many art instincts could best be compared with the productive activity 

 of the human fancy. (See "Der Trichterwickler," S. 156 ff.). In a 

 similar manner this holds good for the nest building instincts of birds. 



