36 The Animal Mind 



human type is to be taken along with rapid learning as co- 

 ordinate evidence of consciousness, it is clear that here also 

 we have to deal with a matter of degree. The structure of 

 the lower animals differs increasingly from our own as we go 

 down the scale. At what degree of difference shall we draw 

 the line and say that the animals above it may be conscious, 

 but that those below it cannot be? No one could possibly 

 establish such a line. The truth of the whole matter seems to 

 be this : We can say neither what amount of resemblance in 

 structure to human beings, nor what speed of learning, consti- 

 tutes a definite mark distinguishing animals with minds from 

 those without minds, unless we are prepared to assert that only 

 animals which learn so fast that they must have memory ideas 

 possess mind at all. And this would conflict with the argu- 

 ment from structure. For example, there is no good experi- 

 mental evidence that cats possess ideas, yet there is enough 

 analogy between their nervous systems and our own to make 

 it improbable that consciousness, so complex and highly 

 developed in us, is in them wholly lacking. We know not 

 where consciousness begins in the animal world. We know 

 where it surely resides in ourselves; we know where it 

 exists beyond a reasonable doubt in those animals of 

 structure resembling ours which rapidly adapt themselves to 

 the lessons of experience. Beyond this point, for all we 

 know, it may exist in simpler and simpler forms until we 

 reach the very lowest of living beings. 



