e., inexperience--but it is not
illogical. The child would be properly called stupid only in case he did
not _learn_ the difference between the animals fed. When, on the other
hand, the child of two and a half years, entirely of his own accord,
holds a watch first to his left ear, then to his right, listens both
times, and then says, "The watch goes, goes too!" then, pointing with
his finger to a clock, cries with delight, "The clock goes too," we
rightly find in such independent induction a proof of intellect. For the
swinging of the pendulum and the ticking had indeed often been
perceived, but to connect the notion of a "going clock" with the visible
but noiseless swinging, just as with the audible but invisible ticking
of the watch, requires a pretty well advanced power of abstraction.
That the ability to _abstract_ may show itself, though imperfectly, even
in the first year, is, according to my observations, certain. Infants
are struck by a quality of an object--e. g., the white appearance of
milk. The "taking away" or "abstracting" then consists in the isolating
of this quality out of innumerable other sight-impressions and the
blending of the impressions into a concept. The _naming_ of this, which
begins months later, by a rudimental word, like _mum_, is an outward
sign of this abstraction, which did not at all lead to the formation of
the concept, but followed it, as will be shown in detail further on (in
the two following chapters).
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