A PINCH OF SALT 



sense as we have when we think of the same subject. 

 The cat has either seen the mouse go into the hole, 

 or else she smells him ; she knows he is there through 

 her senses, and she reacts to that impression. Her 

 instinct prompts her to hunt and to catch mice; she 

 does n't need to think about them as we do about 

 the game we hunt; Nature has done that for her in 

 the shape of an inborn impulse that is awakened 

 by the sight or smell of mice. We have no ready way 

 to describe her act as she sits intently by the hole 

 but to say, The cat thinks there is a mouse there," 

 while she is not thinking at all, but simply watch- 

 ing, prompted to it by her inborn instinct for mice. 



The cow's mouth will water at the sight of her 

 food when she is hungry. Is she thinking about it ? 

 No more than you are when your mouth waters as 

 your full dinner-plate is set down before you. Cer- 

 tain desires and appetites are aroused through sight 

 and smell without any mental cognition. The sexual 

 relations of the animals also illustrate this fact. 



We know that the animals do not think in any 

 proper sense as we do, or have concepts and ideas, 

 because they have no language. To be sure, a deaf 

 mute thinks without language because a human 

 being has the intelligence which language implies, 

 or which was begotten in his ancestors by its use 

 through long ages. Not so with the lower animals. 

 They are like very young children in this respect; 

 they have impressions, perceptions, emotions, but 

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