his body. A knowledge of this circumstance is indispensable if the
result achieved is to be considered as due to reflection, yet the
actual present of the larva affords it no ground for conjecturing
beforehand the condition in which it will presently find itself.

As regards the second case, ferrets and buzzards fall forthwith upon
blind worms or other non-poisonous snakes, and devour them then and
there. But they exhibit the greatest caution in laying hold of
adders, even though they have never before seen one, and will
endeavour first to bruise their heads, so as to avoid being bitten.
As there is nothing in any other respect alarming in the adder, a
conscious knowledge of the danger of its bite is indispensable, if
the conduct above described is to be referred to conscious
deliberation. But this could only have been acquired through
experience, and the possibility of such experience may be controlled
in the case of animals that have been kept in captivity from their
youth up, so that the knowledge displayed can be ascertained to be
independent of experience. On the other hand, both the above
illustrations afford evidence of an unconscious perception of the
facts, and prove the existence of a direct knowledge underivable from
any sensual impression or from consciousness.

This has always been recognised, {113} and has been described under
the words "presentiment" or "foreboding." These words, however,
refer, on the one hand, only to an unknowable in the future,
separated from us by space, and not to one that is actually present;
on the other hand, they denote only the faint, dull, indefinite echo
returned by consciousness to an invariably distinct state of
unconscious knowledge. Hence the word "presentiment," which carries
with it an idea of faintness and indistinctness, while, however, it