62 THE HUMANIZING OF THE BRUTE. 



were introduced into compartment No. 2. Within 15 

 minutes all had withdrawn into the dark compartment 

 No. 1. On the following day the earth in compart- 

 ment No. 2 was moistened. Soon the ants moved 

 over from No. 1 into No. 2. But after some six hours 

 the ants commenced with carrying over the moist earth 

 from No. 2 into No. 1 which now was moist, dark and 

 contained earth and thus was most comfortable. The 

 action of the ants implies "choice" in as far as the 

 one compartment is preferred to the other. But this is 

 not "choice" in its proper meaning. The ants simply 

 do and must do what they experience to be more 

 agreeable to their senses. The concrete moist and 

 dark compartment affects them more pleasantly than 

 the other, and this concrete perception awakens the 

 concrete desire to be in the more comfortable com- 

 partment, which again is followed by the appropriate 

 locomotion of certain organs. But there is no indica- 

 tion of the ants becoming conscious of the abstract 

 relation between the various conditiona of the two 

 compartments to each other and to their own welfare. 

 Nor is there any trace of a free determination upon 

 some alternative. 



Choice implies logical thought and the power 

 of abstraction. For without becoming conscious of 

 the purpose of the action as such, without knowing 

 and understanding why the one object is to be pre- 

 ferred to another, a true and free choice is impossible. 

 It is clear, therefore, that instinctive actions modified 

 by sense-experience do not necessarily imply 

 choice. Otherwise we would have to admit that the 

 wasp mentioned above compares hollow trees and 



