say, "She _is_ chasing a mouse," for then she is nothing else. Such a
state of things is at least conceivable. We can imagine momentary
experiences to be so engrossing that the animal is exclusively
occupied with them, unable to note connections with past and future,
or even with herself, their perceiver. Through very fullness of
Consciousness brutes may be lacking in self-consciousness.

Whether this is the case with the brutes or not, something quite
different occurs in us. No particular experience can satisfy us; we
accordingly say, not "I am an experience," but "I have an experience."
To be able to throw off the bondage of the moment is the distinctive
characteristic of a person. When Shelley watches the skylark, he
envies him his power of whole-heartedly seizing a momentary joy. Then
turning to himself, and feeling that his own condition, if broader, is
on that very account more liable to sorrow, he cries,--

"We look before and after,
And pine for what is not."

That is the mark of man. He looks before and after. The outlook of the
brute, if the questionable account which I have given of him is
correct, is different. He looks to the present exclusively. The
momentary experience takes all his attention. If it does not, he too
in his little degree is a person. Could we determine this simple point
in the brute's psychology, he would at once become available for
ethical material. At present we cannot use him for such purposes, nor
say whether he is selfish or self-sacrificing, possessed of moral
standards and accountable, or driven by subtle yet automatic reflexes.
The obvious facts of him may be interpreted plausibly in either way,
and he cannot speak. Till he can give us a clearer account of this