254 CHILDHOOD OF ANIMALS 



organic memory seem to me to account for all the facts, and it 

 must be remembered that even the word curiosity is a dubious 

 term. It may mean no more than that the senses are alert to any 

 stimulation, and that stimulation is followed by action directed 

 towards the source of the stimulus. 



This may seem a doubtful end to an argument, and a cold con- 

 clusion for one who is a lover of animals. The trouble lies in the 

 word consciousness. In my opinion instincts, experimental action, 

 experience, memory with its consequence choice of motives for 

 action, the immediate and the remembered states of pleasure 

 and pain, all may precede consciousness. Consciousness is some- 

 thing apart from them, different from them, probably dimly begin- 

 ning in the lower animals, a little clearer in the apes, still clearer 

 in savages, but even in ourselves intermittent, and at its best much 

 less complete than we think. 



If, however, we remember that the terms we employ must gain 

 or lose colour and change their significance according to the extent 

 to which we are willing to suppose consciousness involved, then 

 there is no doubt about the facts. The reason why the higher 

 animals have a long period of youth is that instinctive action may 

 be replaced by action based on experience, upon the remembered 

 results of experiment. For this purpose they are fed and protected, 

 freed from the cares of the world and shielded from its troubles, 

 dowered with an excess of energy and a fund of high spirits. When 

 adult, independent life is reached, there is seldom time for reflection 

 or experiment. The business of life is to meet a continuous series 

 of emergencies by prompt and unhesitating action, and this is 

 accomplished best by those animals that have had the longest 

 youth, the best opportunity for playing at life whilst it was still a 

 game, and for making mistakes when mistakes mattered least. 



The mental field of youth and especially of our own youth is 

 sometimes spoken of as a tabula rasa, a clean sheet upon which 

 anything may be written. Nothing is further from the truth. In 

 young animals and in ourselves it is a blend of all sorts of inherited 

 instincts and aptitudes, and we have gained the tremendous advan- 

 tage over other animals and over the lower members of our own 

 race, that we have a prolonged time for finding out and developing 

 the aptitudes and for modifying the instincts. O r own youth 

 should be devoted to this natural purpose. What is called technical 

 education, the training for a special avocation, the development 

 of an aptitude for a special calling, should be put off as long as 



