IDEAS. 27 



of objects and general characters which in our cases heave dis- 

 appeared. The hot soup, the fire on the hearth, the flame of 

 the candle, the noonday heat in the garden, and last of all, the 

 sun, make up one of these classes. The figure of the nurse 

 or mother disappearing behind a hill, form the other class." * 

 Coming next to the case of brutes, and to begin with the 

 simplest kind of illustrations, all the higher animals have 

 general ideas of "Good-for-eating," and "Not-good-for-cating," 

 quite apart from any particular objects of which either of these 

 qualities happens to be characteristic. For, if we give any of 

 the higher animals a morsel of food of a kind which it has 

 never before met with, the animal does not immediately snap 

 it up, nor does it immediately reject our offer ; but it 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, or, in 

 gencial,Good-for-eatingand Not-good-for-eating — the motives 

 of the examination clearly being to ascertain which of these 

 two general ideas of kind is appropriate to the particular 

 object examined. When we ourselves select something which 

 we suppose will prove good to eat, we do not require to call 

 to our aid any of that higher class of abstract ideas for which 

 we are indebted to our powers of language : it is enough to 

 determine our decision if the particular appearance, smell, or 

 taste of the food makes us feel that it probably conforms to 

 our general idea of Good-for-eating. And, therefore, when 

 we see animals determining between similar alternatives by 

 precisely similar methods, we cannot reasonably doubt that 

 the psychological processes are similar ; for, as we know that 

 these processes in ourselves do not involve any of the higher 

 powers of our minds, there is no reason to doubt that the 

 processes, which in their manifestations appear so similar, 

 really are what they appear to be — the same. Again, if I see 

 a fox prowling about a farm-yard, I infer that he has been 

 led by hunger to go where he has a general idea that there 

 are a good many eatable things to be fallen in with^ust 



♦ Taine, Intelligence, p. 18. 



