§ I. Mentality of the Higher Animals. § II. Animal Play. § III. Alleged Formations of Judgments and Concepts. § IV. General Significance of Association. § V. Man and the Animals.

THERE seems at first sight to be a very considerable difference between the expressions of mentality in the higher animals, more especially the more highly developed domestic animals, and the simple or complex associations which we ascribed in the previous lecture to certain of the invertebrates, such as spiders, ants, and other insects with very definite instincts. The perpetual intercourse of the domestic animals with man seems to bring them quite near to him on the mental side; he exerts a determining influence upon the contents of their ideas, the direction of their associations, and their whole affective life. The dog shares the joys and sorrows of its master; it reads anger, happiness, or despondency in his face. The trained poodle is made as happy as can be by its master’s praises, and shows every sign of pride when entrusted with certain duties, as the carrying of a basket or a walking-stick. Now it is true enough that all this points to a great diversity of feeling and a considerable adaptability to the feelings of others. But the emotions expressed never belong to the sphere of intellectual feeling,—logical, æsthetical, etc. So that the only certain inference from the actions in which the animal appears to resemble man so closely is that it is endowed with a very active associational mechanism.