ORDER PACHYDERMATA. 385 



sufficient to justify us in coining to any judgment which is 

 probable, we are warranted in holding by that judgment, 

 until fuller information shall overturn or confirm it. 



In investigating what may be called the inducement to 

 the actions of brutes, the first question appears to be, do 

 animals form simple or 'primary ideas, in a manner similar 

 to that by which man forms them ? The mammalia, at 

 least, have senses exactly like our own, capable of receiv- 

 ing similar impressions, and, consequently, capable of re- 

 sulting similar ideas. 



There is, however, one condition essentially necessary to 

 the formation of all ideas. This is a preparatory organic 

 act, which we call attention; without this, no idea is ever 

 formed. After an idea is once formed, it may certainly 

 recur without this preliminary act ; but it is never origin- 

 ated without it. The mere impression on the senses is in- 

 sufficient ; this act is necessary to put the organ in a 

 proper state to receive an impression essential to the for- 

 mation of an idea, and we may add, that it is equally 

 necessary to every other operation of the intelligent faculty. 



During our waking moments, as our senses are con- 

 tinually acted upon by surrounding objects, they are con- 

 stantly receiving impressions of various kinds. These 

 impressions, -however, do not necessarily form ideas ; we 

 see objects, we hear sounds, we touch bodies, but all 

 these impressions may be utterly inconsequential in re- 

 gard to our intelligence, and take place without producing 

 a single idea ; but if the stimulus of some want or desire 

 produce the preparatory act of which we have been 

 speaking, in other words, if we place ourselves in a state 

 of attention^ and fix that attention on an object, by which 

 our senses are impressed, one or many ideas are the im- 

 mediate result. 



Now this faculty of attention, which follows sensation, 

 and produces ideas, is certainly possessed by animals : it is 



