418 Animal Depravity. [October, 
and precocity are duly chronicled in a tract. On the con- 
trary, the healthy and vigorous child, full of life and ation, 
is apt to rebel against authority. It is, therefore, set down 
as a tiny incarnation of evil, and ifit finds its way at all into 
a pretty story-book, is made to serve as an awful warning 
for the rising generation. There is wonderful virtue in 
listlessness, and in impotence lies an inconceivable amount 
of purity. Perhaps if we take the latter term in its modern 
cant sense the two may be regarded as practically synony- 
mous. 
The existence of a will, capable of acting at times in 
defiance of circumstances, is as clearly manifest in the horse, 
the ass, and the pig as in man himself, though in the three 
former it is little appreciated. Strange that what in ani- 
mals is branded as stupidity should in man be deemed almost 
divine. . 
Were brutes devoid of freedom, unable to choose between 
two lines of conduct, we should find them in all cases simply 
obedient to their propensities, and intent only upon immedi- 
ate gratification without any regard to ulterior consequences. 
Were such the case, for man to train them would be an 
impossibility. Yet we knowthat dogs, cats, hawks, &c., are 
trained to conduct quite different from their natural inclina- 
tions. A cat, though one of the most self-willed of animals, 
can be taught to abstain from molesting chickens, pigeons, 
and cage-birds, or from stealing, scratching furniture, &c. A 
dog can be brought to point to a covey of partridges instead 
of obeying his natural impulse to rush forward and endea- 
vour to seize them. The following case is very significant : 
—‘‘ A fine terrier in the possession of a surgeon at White- 
haven, about three weeks ago exhibited its sagacity in a rather 
amusing manner. It came into the kitchen and began 
plucking the servant by the gown, and in spite of repeated 
rebuffs it perseveringly continued in its purpose. ‘The mis- 
tress of the house, hearing the noise, came down to inquire 
the cause, when the animal treated her in a similar manner. 
Being struck with the concern evinced by the creature she 
quietly followed it upstairs into a bedroom whither it led 
her; there it commenced barking, looking under the bed and 
then upin her face. Upon examination a cat was discovered 
there quietly demolishing a beef-steak, which it had feloni- 
ously obtained. ‘The most curious feature is that the cat 
had been introduced into the house only a short time before, 
and that bitter enmity prevailed between her and her canine 
companion,” * 
* Zoologist, p. 2331. 
