48 THE ORIGIN OF HUMAN REASON. 



that throughout this history [that of the development or 

 growth of abstraction] the development is a development/: 

 the faculty of abstraction is everywhere the same in 

 kind. And the next thing is that this development is 

 everywhere dependent on the faculty of language.'' 



Now, in our present work we have to encounter a 

 singular difficulty. We have, by means of written 

 language, to make it clear to those who read and who 

 mostly think in words, what thought is and can become 

 without words. Fortunately, Mr. Romanes agrees with 

 us in perceiving that, in man, abstraction and the 

 formation of distinct, unequivocal ideas, can take place 

 without words.* As we shall have occasion, later on, to 

 consider his examples, we will defer citing any ourselves 

 till the occasion referred to arises. 



But Mr. Romanes introduces ambiguity and con- 

 fusion at once, saying,t " All the higher animals have 

 general ideas of * Good-for-eating ' and * Not-good-for- 

 eating' ... for ... the animal . . . subjects the 

 morsel to a careful examination before consigning it to 

 the mouth. This proves, if anything can, that such an 

 animal has a general or abstract idea of sweet, bitter, 

 hot, and, in general Good-for-eating and Not~good-for- 



* He quotes M. Taine's account of a little girl eighteen months 

 old, who was amused by her mother hiding in play behind a piece 

 of furniture and saying " Coucou." Again, when her food was too 

 hot, when she went too near the fire or candle, and when the sun 

 was warm, she was told " Ca brule." One day, on seeing the sun 

 disappear behind a hill, she exclaimed, " 'A b'ule coucou," which 

 showed, of course, that without speech she had formed concepts, 

 which might be expressed by the terms, "Bodies giving forth 

 heat," and "The action of hiding behind an object." 



t p. 27. 



