STUDIES ON TBE MENTAL LIFE OF ANIMALS. 563 



method of learning long- division, for. exapaple, would perhaps be to 

 learn it in the form of numerous practical exercises. This method, 

 like that of animal trainers, is founded on the formation of associa- 

 tion by the repetition of the act. One of the essential laws of peda- 

 'gogy ought to be that no restraint should be imposed upon children 

 that is not based upon the subjective laws that govern the personal 

 development of each child. 



IX. 



The method of investigation chosen by Mr. Thorndike has the great 

 advantage of including in the observation only known elements, chc ^en 

 in advance by the observer himself; it simplities and makes clear the 

 data of the crude experiment; it facilitates the interpretation of facts. 

 Yet it is necessarily somewhat arbitrary; it neglects the actually exist- 

 ing complexity. In the investigations considered, one single element, 

 of a physiological rather than a psychological nature, dominated the 

 conduct of all the subjects — that is, hunger. But is that .state of phj^s- 

 iological disturbance the most favorable one for studying the superior 

 psychological life of animals? In studying states of consciousness 

 closely associated with a physical need, has not Mr. Thorndike purely 

 and simply eliminated in advance an entire side of that intellectual life, 

 and precisely those forms, rudimentary without doubt, but perhaps 

 really existent, of an original and free psychological development? 



Everyone knows how much our own mental life may be disturbed 

 and upset by a disorder affecting an organic function. Notwithstand- 

 ing the authority of Pascal, we are generally but little inclined to 

 mathematical calculations while sult'oring with the toothache; poetic 

 revery is not a common preoccupation of a man who is hungry. Now, 

 other things being equal, was not this state of mental depression, 

 which is intimately allied to physical suti'ering, the state in which Mr. 

 Thorndike's subjects, particularly his dogs and cats, were placed? A 

 single feeling engrossed their consciousness — the feeling of the distress 

 they suffered; it was like a state of mono-ideism w^hich must disturb 

 the normal course of their psychological development. The procedure 

 of Mr. Thorndike appears to us very acceptable as regards the investi- 

 gation of the conditions of the formation and nature of association — 

 at least, in so far as he defines it — but it yet is necessary to complete 

 the investigation by a study of subjects, free, as regards physiological 

 necessities. 



As to the investigations regarding imitation, they seem to us much 

 less conclusive. In the first place, Mr. Thorndike reasons as if the 

 time during which the subject looks at the model corresponded to a 

 time of real attention. Nothing could be less certain. Even when 

 the subject sees the cat or the dog taken as guide escape from the 

 cage, his own consciousness may be occupied by quite other matters 



