258 MIND IN EVOLUTION CHAP. 



done to it, he saw that this was the thing to attack and 

 explore. 



On the whole, then, it would seem that animals are 

 influenced by similarity of relations. Not that they 

 dissect out the common element which constitutes a class 

 identity ; they have not solved the problem which has 

 baffled logicians. It is rather that they have a concrete 

 perception of the man or animal, house or locality with 

 which they are familiar ; that such an object contains 

 many elements in various relations ; and that when they 

 meet another object similar in general character, i.e.^ really 

 in its constitutive relations, to the first, they know how to 

 deal with it. This implies that they have the power of 

 grasping an object as a whole including distinct elements 

 which I have called Concrete Experience, and the power of 

 applying this experience which I have called Practical 

 Judgment. 



2. b. The object as centre of relations. 



A further point distinguishing the knowledge of objects 

 lies in the use made of it. To perception, as already 

 pointed out, any object is a centre of many relations. 

 And if there is knowledge of objects, any one of these 

 relations should be available to serve whatever happens to 

 be the purpose of the moment. Here again is a marked 

 difference from the habituation in accordance with which an 

 animal learns to react in a uniform manner to a given 

 stimulus. Thus one can understand that by habit or 

 association, an animal should always resort to a particular 

 spot as his home or his feeding place, or that he should 

 follow as our own feet often mechanically follow a well- 

 known path. But if applied to explain a dog or cat's 

 acquaintance with locality, the habituation theory seems to 

 break down. Thus, on this theory, when a dog, hearing 

 the dinner-bell, rushes down to the dining-room from a 

 distant part of the house, we should have to explain its 

 action somewhat after this fashion. The sound of the bell 

 impels it to rise : the sight of the door, to open it and 

 pass through ; the sight of the passage, to turn to the 

 right, go downstairs, turn to the left, and so forth. Each 

 new motion must on this theory be due to an impulse 



