xv CONCEPTUAL THOUGHT 343 



play with, and there is, thirdly, the method of example 

 which the young is encouraged to imitate, as seen in the 

 practice of those Divers which hold a fish before their young 

 and then dive with it. 1 These methods seem to follow 

 very naturally from the parental instincts as developed by 

 concrete experience. The direct delight 2 in seeing the 

 young ones do things may as readily be conceived to be 

 a part of the parental instinct among animals as it certainly 

 is among men. The means used are simple adaptation to 

 immediate practical ends all working on an instinctive basis. 

 We can hardly credit the mother-cat with a conception of 

 the future career of her kitten as a famous mouser or as a 

 household pet. Nor can we legitimately impute to her 

 that vicarious self-control which would subordinate the 

 immediate gratification of the kitten to the training of its 

 character. It is to be feared that whenever the mother- 

 cat's action has the appearance of such a refinement, it is 

 rather to her own comfort than to her ideas of moral 

 training that we must look for explanation. But these 

 conceptions of permanent welfare and character are the root 

 ideas of human education, and follow naturally from the 

 conception of personality. 3 



3. If the conception of personality in Self and others 

 is dependent on the power of grasping masses of ex- 

 perience in comprehensive and inter-related conceptions, it 

 seems hardly necessary to argue that the same thing is true 

 of organised political society. Human society probably 

 in all forms, and certainly in the most primitive known, 

 rests on a mass of observances based on tradition, and 

 providing rules of conduct that continually thwart heredi- 

 tary impulse or instinct. Rights and duties in relation to 

 property, to sex, to a parent, to a chief, form a system, 

 and, as social life develops, a system so complex as to be 

 difficult even for the trained reasoner to apply consistently. 

 The finer differentiation of duty in the several relations of 



1 See Schneider, p. 375. 2 //>., p. 376. 



3 Whether such a conception and the type of education founded on it is 

 universal among mankind, we do not here inquire. The foundation is 

 laid in the power of forming conceptions. What is built on it may vary 

 indefinitely, and extreme cases may vary down to zero. The savage con- 

 ception of personality is no doubt extremely rude and confused. 



