THE MORAL SENSE IN THE LOWER ANIMALS. 



349 



act of pilfering from the larder. The signs of detected and acknowl- 

 edged guilt are the same in kind as would be exhibited under parallel 

 circumstances by the human child. The animal, like the child, if ren- 

 dered sensitive by previous moral training, shows unmistakably its 

 coiisciousness of delinquency. Its look and demeanor alike eloquently 

 bespeak its sense of detection and disgrace. It understands its mas- 

 ter's accusation as conveyed by eye, tone, word, gesture, and it either 

 makes instant effort to escape the punishment which it knows it has 

 incurred and deserved, or, if escape be hopeless, it, as calmly as may 

 be, awaits the said punishment, and does not resent it, as it would did 

 it feel it to be unmerited. A bitch having once eaten a quantity of 

 shrimps intended for her master's dinner sauce, had only to be asked 

 ever after, " Who stole the shrimps ? " to cause her to take to igno- 

 minious flight — ears and tail down — going to bed, " refusing to be com- 

 forted .... the picture of shame and remorse," while we are told 

 "she never stole again" ("Animal World"), 



A young dog having committed some offense against the established 

 rules of his master's household, " after we had shaken our heads at him 

 and turned away .... although he must have been very hungry, 

 would not touch his food, but sat close to the door, Avhining and cry- 

 ing, till we made it up with him by telling him that he was forgiven 

 and taking his offered paw, when he ate his supper and went quietly 

 to bed." Another dog, " if he has done anything wrong, comes up 

 looking very much ashamed of himself and voluntarily offers his paw " 

 (Wood). Hei*e we have decided efforts ^i 2^ro2ntiatioti of an offended 

 master or mistress, and after the fashion of man's reconciliations by 

 the shaking of hands, as nearly as the dog can imitate this arrange- 

 ment. There are cases in which regret or remorse leads to the restora- 

 tion of stolen goods, A dog that had murdered a duck was caught in 

 the act of burying its dead body — that is, of concealing the evidences 

 of his crime. " So deeply was his conscience pricked that when he 

 found himself arrested by a bush he ran the risk of dying of cold 

 and hunger rather than allow himself to be discovered " (Wood), 

 When a large, magnanimous, powerful dog — for instance, of the New- 

 foundland breed — has allowed impulse or passion to hurry it into some 

 rash act, such as killing or too severely punishing some puny pug that 

 has been merely forward, impudent, or annoying, it frequently and 

 eloquently expresses its shame, regret, or remorse. 



As in man, conscience or conscientiousness sometimes has its strange 

 or striking vagaries, eccentricities, or inconsistencies in other animals. 

 Thus a retriever that would himself touch no food belonging to his 

 master, yet offered no objection to theft of the same food by a cat, nor 

 did he decline to accept a share of her plunder (Wood). 



Not only do animals feel their own wrong-doing, but they appre- 

 ciate evil or evil deeds in their young and in their fellows, including 

 other genera and species, and man himself. They show this, for in- 



