General Sense Images and the Power of Abstraction. 93 



ferent sense representations, examines their similarity 

 and dissimilarity, their objective coherence and non- 

 coherence, it searches into the casual relations which 

 link them together or to the sentient subject: it thus 

 rises to general concepts and draws conclusions by con- 

 necting them. This logical and mental activity of tire 

 intellect, and this alone, involves a power of abstraction 

 in the proper sense of the term. Intelligence alone dis- 

 tinguishes between essential and unessential, between 

 specific and individual properties, between the charac- 

 teristic marks of the genus and of the family, it alone 

 is able to conceive the hare as a member of a certain 

 zoological system. Now, if such a conception sur- 

 passes even the powers of the sensile imagination of 

 man, how much more is it beyond those of the animal. 

 The elder Reimarus hinted at this truth, when he wrote : 

 "The instinctive knowledge, (of animals) \seems to recogv 

 nize not only single objects, but also species and genera. 

 For the dog can distinguish fruit from meat, and tame 

 animals from beasts of prey ; an ox or a sheep can dis- 

 tinguish any poisonous herb from healthy fodder; the 

 male of any animal can distinguish the females of the 

 same species from those of another. Have they, then, 

 general concepts? Have they separate representations 

 of the similarity of different single objects? Have they 

 a genealogical table of objects laid out in. their brains? 

 By no means, as is evident from the foolish errors they 

 are liable to commit. When they experience the same 

 feeling as the result of the most different objects, they 

 deem those objects identical." 1 



*) "Allgemeine Betrachtungen ueber die Triebe der Thiere.," 3d 

 Edition, Hamburg, 1773, p. 33, 



