THE INTELLIGENCE OF MAMMALS 249 



The sweetness occurs to us very quickly and directly, and 

 with it, if we are hungry, the impulse to seize, and eat the 

 orange. In this, as in most affairs of life, we arrive at the 

 conclusion first and reason about it afterward. Our con- 

 scious reasoning is a process of reviewing and verification 

 which can usually be dispensed with, rather than one of 

 discovery. The animal that reaches for an object which it 

 has learned is good to eat gets along without the retrospec- 

 tive review. He may go through with mental processes of 

 various degrees of complexity. The visual sensation may 

 call up directly the impulse to seize and eat the orange. It 

 may call up along with the latter the taste and other attri- 

 butes of the orange. It may call up the taste and other 

 attributes which in turn arouse the impulses to seize and 

 eat. The various mental steps may be present hi different 

 degrees of vividness. The relation of different states may 

 be attended to; the animal may finally come to "think the 

 therefore," and so on. 



"Inference," says Hobhouse, "is one function, from the 

 simplest case quoted by Mr. Morgan of the chick, up to the 

 highest elaboration of experience by the human intellect. 

 The differences are differences in articulateness on the one 

 side, and comprehensiveness on the other." There is good 

 reason to believe that animals profit by the association of 

 ideas, and that they do certain acts, not for then* own sake, 

 but as a means to an ulterior end which is kept hi mind. 

 If we do not choose to designate the mental operations 

 involved in such behavior by the term reason we must at 

 least admit that they are on the road to it. 



How far along animals like dogs, raccoons and elephants 

 may be on the highway toward reason properly so-called 

 it is impossible at present to state. I have read critically 

 a good many stories of animal intelligence which have left 



