It is probable therefore, that the inequalities and 43
differences in origin cause great antipathies in the animals,
and the result is incompatibility, discord, and conflict between
the sensations of the different animals. Again, the differences
in the principal parts of the body, especially in those 44
fitted by nature to judge and to perceive, may cause the
greatest differences in their ideas of objects, according to the
differences in the animals themselves. As for example, those who
have the jaundice call that yellow which appears to us white,
and those who have bloodshot eyes call it blood-red.
Accordingly, as some animals have yellow eyes, and others
blood-shot ones, and still others whitish ones, and others eyes
of other colors, it is probable, I think, that they have a
different perception of colors. Furthermore, when we look
steadily at the sun for a long time, and then look down at a 45
book, the letters seem to us gold colored, and dance around. Now
some animals have by nature a lustre in their eyes, and these
emit a fine and sparkling light so that they see at night, and
we may reasonably suppose that external things do not appear the
same to them as to us. Jugglers by lightly rubbing the wick 46
of the lamp with metal rust, or with the dark yellow fluid of
the sepia, make those who are present appear now copper-colored
and now black, according to the amount of the mixture used; if
this be so it is much more reasonable to suppose that because of
the mixture of different fluids in the eyes of animals, their
ideas of objects would be different.
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