DO ANIMALS THINK? 215 



an animal is "most like what we feel when our con- 

 sciousness contains little thought about anything, when 

 we feel the sense impressions in their first intention, so 

 to speak, when we feel our own body and the impulses 

 we give to it (or that outward objects give to it). 

 Sometimes one gets this animal consciousness ; while 

 in swimming, for example. One feels the water, the 

 sky, the birds above, but with no thoughts about them, 

 or memories of how they looked at other times, or 

 aesthetic judgments about their beauty. One feels no 

 ' ideas ' about what movements he will make, but feels 

 himself make them, feels his body throughout. Self- 

 consciousness dies away. The meanings and values and 

 connections of things die away. One feels sense-im- 

 pressions, has impulses, feels the movements he makes ; 

 that is all." 



This is probably a good description of the state of 

 mind of a dog when he is basking in the sunlight ; he 

 is thinking of nothing. But he hears the shrill cry of 

 a squirrel this at once recalls to him the image of the 

 little rodent and past shikar. In a moment the dog is 

 on the alert ; he is now thinking of the squirrel, and his 

 instinct and inclinations teach him to give chase to it. 

 Or he hears a footstep ; he recognises it as that of his 

 master, sees that the latter is wearing a topi, and at 

 once pictures up a run in the compound with his 

 master. But his owner chains him up. The dog looks 

 wistfully at his master's retreating figure and pulls at 

 his chain ; it is surely absurd to say that the dog is not 

 thinking. The picture of a scamper beside his master 

 rises up before him, and he feels sad because he knows 



