348 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to stick by the right, its longing for the wrong — for the titbit, which 

 it knows it would be improper to steal — and the final triumph either 

 of virtue or temptation. The poor animal, knowing or feeling the 

 weakness of the flesh, sometimes has the moral strength, the force of 

 character, the good sense, to avoid temptation altogether. But dogs, 

 like men, are apt to have the most trying temptations thrust unexpect- 

 edly upon them, and then comes the tug of war of the appetites and 

 passions — the moral turmoil that may make shipwreck of or that may 

 strengthen virtue. Sometimes, then, by the dog, as by the man, temp- 

 tation is successfully resisted after perhaps a series of protracted and 

 painful moral struggles that have been very apparent to the onlooker. 

 Unfortunately, however, equally in dog and man, the resistance of 

 temptation is less common by far than non-resistance or non-success in 

 resistance, the result of which is various forms or degrees of wrong- 

 doing. 



But in the dog, cat, and other animals this wrong-doing is accom- 

 panied by a perfect consciousness or conception of the nature of their 

 behavior. They are quite aware of being engaged in actions that will 

 bring inevitable punishment, which penalty, moreover, they are sen- 

 sible they deserve. Miss Buist gives the history of a pet canary that 

 was given to prancing about on her piano-keys, and that knew it was 

 wrong in so doing. 



Abundant evidence of a consciousness of vorong-doing is to be 

 found either generally in the — 



1. Pricks, stings, or pangs of conscience. 



2. The various expressions of a sense of guilt — for instance, the — 



a. Sneaking gait. 

 h. Depressed head, ears, and tail. 

 c. Temporary disappearance. 

 . d. Permanent absconding ; desertion of home and master. 



3. The multiform exhibitions of contrition, regret, repentance, self- 

 reproach, remorse — 



Or more specifically in the — 



4. Efforts at reconciliation and pardon, including the giving of 

 peace-offerings. 



5. Various forms of making atonement. 



6. Concealment of crime or its proofs. 



7. Artifices for escaping detection or conviction. 



8. Non-resentment of punishment. 



9. Sensitiveness to reproof, or even under more reference to former 

 delinquency. 



10. Punishment of offenders by and among each other. 

 Conscience is frequently as severe a monitor in other animals as in 



man, its reproaches as stinging and hard to be borne, its tomients 

 sometimes intolerable. We may speak quite correctly, for instance, 

 of the conscierice-stricken animal thief, the cat or dog caught in the 



