THE PERCEPTION OF SIGHT. 313 



which show themselves much more skilful than a human 

 infant. It is quite clear that an infant, in spite of the 

 greater size of its brain, and its power of mental develop- 

 ment, learns with extreme slowness to perform the 

 simplest tasks ; as, for example, to direct its eyes to an 

 object or to touch what it sees with its hands. Must we 

 not conclude that a child has much more to learn than 

 an animal which is safely guided, but also restricted, 

 by its instincts ? It is said that the calf sees the udder 

 and goes after it, but it admits of question whether it 

 does not simply smell it, and make those movements 

 which bring it nearer to the scent. ^ At any rate, the 

 child knows nothing of the meaning of the visual image 

 presented by its mother's breast. It often turns obsti- 

 nately away from it to the wrong side and tries to find 

 it there. The young chicken very soon pecks at grains 

 of corn, but it pecked while it was still in the shell, 

 and when it hears the hen peck, it pecks again, at first 

 seemingly at random. Then, when it has by chance hit 

 upon a grain, it may, no doubt, learn to notice the field 

 of vision which is at the moment presented to it. The 

 process is all the quicker because the whole of the mental 

 furniture which it requires for its life is but small. 



We need, however, further investigations on the sub- 

 ject in order to throw light upon this question. As far 

 as the observations with which I am acquainted go, they 

 do not seem to me to prove that anything more than 

 certain tendencies is born with animals. At all events 

 one distinction between them and man lies precisely in 

 this, that these innate or congenital tendencies, im- 

 pulses or instincts are in him reduced to the smallest 

 possible number and strength.^ 



' See Darwin on the Expression of the Emotiovs, p. 47- — Tr. 

 * See on this subject Bain on the Senses and the Intellect, p. 293 ; also a 

 paper on 'Instinct' in Nature, Oct. 10, 1872. 



