7. Brutes compound but little.
In this also, I suppose, brutes come far short of man. For, though they take in, and
retain together, several combinations of simple ideas, as possibly the shape, smell, and voice of his master make
up the complex idea a dog has of him, or rather are so many distinct marks whereby he knows him; yet I do not
think they do of themselves ever compound them and make complex ideas. And perhaps even where we think
they have complex ideas, it is only one simple one that directs them in the knowledge of several things, which
possibly they distinguish less by their sight than we imagine. For I have been credibly informed that a bitch will
nurse, play with, and be fond of young foxes, as much as, and in place of her puppies, if you can but get them
once to suck her so long that her milk may go through them. And those animals which have a numerous brood of
young ones at once, appear not to have any knowledge of their number; for though they are mightily concerned
for any of their young that are taken from them whilst they are in sight or hearing, yet if one or two of them be
stolen from them in their absence, or without noise, they appear not to miss them, or to have any sense that their
number is lessened.
