WHAT MAY ANIMALS BE TAUGHT? 175 



we accompany our interjections with corresponding gestures, and that 

 the interjection itself is only one gesture more. We forget how we 

 have trained him, how we have worked upon his instinct to make him 

 run for the stick we have thrown, and have taught him to bring it 

 back in his jaws, by leading him, and showing him how, and petting 

 him when he performs the trick aright. You accompany your orders 

 with certain words as if you were speaking to a child, and gave them 

 a precise signification ; but the dog does not attach this signification 

 to the word only ; to him the word, or the vowel in the word, is only 

 a sign that concurs with all the others in helping to make him under- 

 stand what we want of him. 



If, while sitting at my table, I say to my son, "Charles, will you 

 be so good as to bring me my slippers ? " he will understand me. If 

 I say the same thing to my dog, in the same tone and without moving, 

 he will not understand me. I shall have to express myself in a par- 

 ticular manner and a particular tone of voice. He will understand, 

 " Houston, bring the slippers ! " or " Houston, slippers ! " or " Houston, 

 bring ! " But he will not understand the cool, calm request that is 

 sufficient direction to my boy. The word slippers does not call up 

 in him the idea of my slippers, but that of a complex action which he 

 is to perform, consisting of a combination of successive movements 

 winding up with a caress. Provided I make the accustomed gesture, 

 he will obey, though I use the wrong word ; and he will not obey, 

 though I use the right word, if I speak in an indifferent tone as if to 

 some one behind the scenes. 



It frequently occurs to us to think in this way by sensible images, 

 although we do not remark it. When in the morning I hear the ser- 

 vants go down, make the fire, and arrange the table, hear the rattling 

 of the dishes, I do not think in words that they are getting breakfast, 

 and are preparing the coffee, and putting on the bread, and the butter, 

 and the sugar ; but I see these preparations in images ; I behold the 

 coffee-pot, the milk-pitcher, the sugar-bowl and sugar, and the slices 

 of bread ; and I see in my mind's eye the housemaid in her white 

 apron going back and forth, opening the cupboards, and arranging the 

 table-service. When, after this, she knocks at my door, and calls out, 

 "Breakfast is ready, sir," it is very possible that these words will 

 not awaken in my mind the idea of breakfast, but that of time to get 

 up, to wash, dress, and go to business. I attach to the words, with 

 their strict sense, a more remote sense which is associated with them. 

 This is the way dogs and animals generally think ; and this is the 

 meaning our language has to them. They do not analyze, but compre- 

 hend in block. This is the way the deaf-mute comprehends our signs. 



It surely is not by analysis that the child learns to speak ; he 

 understands our phrases as a whole, and it is not till after some time 

 that he comes to see in them separate words ; but, finally, he decom- 

 poses the phrases. Now, if the child can do this, why can not the ani- 



