304 MIND IN EVOLUTION CHAP. 



or external change A, which the animal had observed to 

 lead to the end B. This implies a function coinciding with 

 that of a practical idea A, the essential features of which 

 would be, on the one hand, its power to direct the minor 

 adjustments of action towards the production of a physical 

 event, and on the other, of being correlated with and 

 subordinate to another idea. 



Further evidence tending in the same direction is to be 

 found : 



a. In the appreciation of that general similarity of rela- 

 tions in which objects of a class resemble one another. We 

 saw reason to think that in inferring from one person, 

 animal, or complex inanimate object to another of the same 

 class, an animal shows itself to be guided by similarity of 

 this kind. 



b. In the absence of a uniform reaction to a known 

 object, and the choice on the contrary of a reaction deter- 

 mined by the relation in which ;he object may stand to the 

 thing desired. On this head, we brought evidence to show 

 that an animal's knowledge of locality could not be resolved 

 into a series of motor reactions to the things which sur- 

 round it, but that its movements may be guided by Desire 

 to find what is out of the range of perception. 



(3). Application of Experience. 



The results of experience are applied in action in a 

 manner not predetermined by the experience itself. 



Such application appears in an elementary form even in 

 "perceptual learning," where what is first a passive obser- 

 vation is utilised as a guide to action. A much higher 

 case, in which the contrast with habit and association is 

 decisive, is that of " spontaneous application," in which an 

 inference is drawn from experience, and an act not done or 

 seen before is performed to meet the case. 



Of such use of experience there seems to be sufficient 

 evidence in the behaviour of apes. 1 Among lower animals, 

 the evidence at present is sporadic and " anecdotal." 



1 I would refer to the action of the Rhesus in loosening the string 

 which held the hook, in its attempts at " theft," and as a probable case 

 in the use of the footstool. The use by both chimpanzee and Rhesus 

 of one stick to reach another seems a slightly more complex case of 

 " application." 



