114 undp:rhill : 



his freedom, trots off down the road. Somewhat puzzled by 

 his new experience, and perhaps a little apprehensive of 

 danger, he approaches the familiar shop of the smith, and 

 habit, as well as confidence that he has nothing- to fear there, 

 leads him to turn in. The smith approaches him in a kindl}' 

 way, and, as is his usual habit in this place when this man 

 passes his hand over his shoulder, the horse lifts his foot. It 

 would be surprising if the smith did not then perceive a nail 

 that needed tightening, or possibly a loose shoe, and he pro- 

 ceeds to fix everything right. Then along comes the anecdote 

 of the wise horse that went to the blacksmith's of his own 

 accord and lifted his foot to be shod, reported from the obser- 

 vation of the "gentleman of undoubted integrity'." Facts 

 true enough, but misinterpreted. 



The question as to whether horses, or any of the lower 

 animals for that matter, reason, is one that will perhaps not 

 admit of solution, in the light of our present knowledge at 

 least. The writer has never felt justified in holding the 

 opinion that they do not, in the absence of proof that certain 

 actions in these animals, generally considered as instinctive, 

 are not fundamentally referable to reason. Special acts of 

 ratiocination occurring in creatures placed amid surroundings 

 that daily required them, would eventually l)ecome habitual 

 and instinctive. As habit and instinct are transmissil)le to 

 progeny, these actions might be observable in succeeding gen- 

 erations, even though the conditions that recjuired them to be 

 frecpiently repeated as original acts of reason are no longer 

 present. If an act of instinct has its origin in ancestral acts 

 of ratiocination, why should there not be other acts of ratio- 

 cination in the present generation ? 



Weir defines reason as " the intelligent correlation of idea- 

 tion and action for definite purjioses not instinctive." It 

 might seem, then, that when m\- horse lifts the hitch of his 

 stall door, pushes the door open with his nose and walks out, 

 as he has often been seen to do, he reasons, for, granting that 

 we have here the idea to leave the stall, we nlso apix-ar to 



