SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS, 207 



human one, as is generally believed, except in respect to the 

 high degree of proficiency attained by men in its use. It does 

 not appear impossible that an intelligent dog may be aided by 

 its attention, purposely directed to spontaneous necessaries, 

 in recalling a missing fact, such as the locality of a buried 

 bone." * 



But whether or not animals possess any power of 

 recollection as distinguished from memory, there can be no 

 doubt that the use of words as signs necessarily leads to the 

 cultivation of this faculty, and so to the clear perception of a 

 continuance of internal or mental states in which consists the 

 consciousness of an abiding self. 



Further, the acquisition of language greatly advances the 

 conception of self, both as a suffering or feeling agent, and as 

 an active cause ; seeing that both the feelings and the actions 

 of the self are placed clearly before the mind by means of 

 denotative names, and even, as we have just seen, by pre-con- 

 ceptual propositions. Doubtless, also, the recognition of self 

 in each of these capacities is largely assisted by the emotions. 

 The expressions of affection, sympathy, praise, blame, &c., on 

 the part of others, and the feelings of emulation, pride, 

 triumph, disappointment, &c., on the part of the self, must 

 all tend forcibly to impress upon the growing child a sense 

 of personality. " It is when the child's attention is driven 

 inwards in an act of reflection on his own actions, as 

 springing from good or bad motives, that he wakes up to a 

 fuller consciousness of himself." f 



The conspiring together of all these factors leads to the 

 gradual attainment of self-consciousness. I say "gradual," 

 because the process is throughout of the nature of a growth. 



♦ Philosophical Discussions, p. 256. See also Animal Intelligence, pp. 269, 270, 

 for the case of a parrot apj arently endeavouring to recover the memory of a 

 particular word in a phrase. In the course of an interesting research on the 

 intelligence of spiders [Joiirn. Morphol.^ i., p. 383-419), Mr. and Mrs. Peckham 

 have recently found that the memory of eggs which have been withdrawn from the 

 mother is retained by her for a period varying in diiTerent species from less than 

 one to more than two days. 



t Sully, loc. cit., p. 377. 



