ANIMAL “AESTHETICS” AND “ETHICS” 271 
the agent. Now, the conclusion to which we are led by direct 
experiment and a critical study of the actions of animals whose 
life-history is known to us is, that most of their behaviour 
—perhaps all—is due to what Dr. Stout terms the perceptual, 
as opposed to the ideational, exercise of cognition. Their 
behaviour can be explained without having recourse to the 
hypothesis that they reflect, and attain to ideal schemes as the 
result of abstraction and generalization consciously directed to 
this end. Rather than repeat what I have already said, I will 
quote Dr. Stout’s summary of the position to which he, too, has 
been led. ‘The vast interval,’ he says,* “which separates 
human achievements, so far as they depend on human intelli- 
gence, from animal achievements, so far as they depend on 
animal intelligence, is connected with the distinction between 
perceptual and ideational process. Animal activities are either 
purely perceptual, or, in so far as they involve ideas, these ideas 
serve only to prompt and guide an action in its actual execu- 
tion. On the other hand, man constructs ‘in his head,’ by 
means of trains of ideas, schemes of action before he begins to 
carry them out. He is thus capable of overcoming difficulties 
in advance. He can cross a bridge before he comes to it.” 
It has already been stated that in the intelligent behaviour 
of animals under man’s teaching he is the rational agent, they 
his willing slaves. This may be here again illustrated to 
enforce the distinction drawn by Dr. Stout in the above 
passage. Those who have seen a shepherd’s dog working 
sheep on a moorland fell, and have taken the trouble to 
ascertain how the results he sees have been attained, will 
appreciate, on the one hand, how well the dog knows and 
responds to the signals of his master, and, on the other hand, 
how completely all initiation is in the master’s mind, not that 
of the keenly intelligent dog. Those who merely witness such 
a performance without inquiry or investigation will probably 
misunderstand the whole matter. In the north of England 
competitions are not uncommon where, say, three sheep have 
to be driven over a definite course, between certain posts and 
* “Manual of Psychology,” p. 266. 
