The Outline of Science, Vol. 1 (of 4): A Plain Story Simply ToldThomson, J. Arthur (John Arthur)
Science
The Outline of Science, Vol. 1 (of 4): A Plain Story Simply Told
Thomson, J. Arthur (John Arthur)
Science
In mammals like otters, foxes, stoats, hares, and elephants, what a
complex of tides and currents there must be in the brain-mind! We may
think of a stream with currents at different levels. Lowest there are
the _basal appetites_ of hunger and sex, often with eddies rising to the
surface. Then there are the _primary emotions_, such as fear of
hereditary enemies and maternal affection for offspring. Above these are
_instinctive aptitudes_, inborn powers of doing clever things without
having to learn how. But in mammals these are often expressed along
with, or as it were through, the controlled life of _intelligent
activity_, where there is more clear-cut perceptual influence.
[Illustration: _Photo: W. P. Dando._
CHIMPANZEE
An African ape, at home in the equatorial forests, a lively and playful
creature, eminently educable.]
[Illustration: _Photo: W. S. Berridge._
YOUNG CHEETAHS, OR HUNTING LEOPARDS
Trained to hunt from time immemorial and quite easily tamed. Cheetahs
occur in India, Persia, Turkestan, and Africa.]
[Illustration: _Photo: C. Reid._
COMMON OTTER
One of the most resourceful of animals and the "most playsomest crittur
on God's earth." It neither stores nor hibernates, but survives in
virtue of its wits and because of the careful education of the young.
The otter is a roving animal, often with more than one resting-place; it
has been known to travel fifteen miles in a night.]
Higher still are the records or memories of individual experience and
the registration of individual habits, while on the surface is the
instreaming multitude of messages from the outside world, like raindrops
and hailstones on the stream, some of them penetrating deeply, being, as
we say, full of meaning. The mind of the higher animal is in some
respects like a child's mind, in having little in the way of clear-cut
ideas, in showing no reason in the strict sense, and in its
extraordinary educability, but it differs from the child's mind entirely
in the sure effectiveness of a certain repertory of responses. It is
efficient to a degree.
"Until at last arose the Man."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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