72 M. Cuvicr on (he Domestication of 



have recourse for subjecting animals, and for subjecting man, 

 ure sufficient to make us presume that beings which are only to 

 be mastered by entirely opposite means no more resemble each 

 other after than before submission, and that slavery and 

 domesticity are widely different. 



In fact, man can only be reduced to slavery and kept in it by 

 force, the animal can only be reduced t'j domesticity by seduc- 

 tion, that is to say, only bv acting; upon its wants, whether for 

 the purpose of satisfying or of weakening them. 



Hence the principle that violence would be incfiectiial for 

 disposing a wild animal to obedience. Not being naturally 

 inclined to approach us who are not of its species, it would flee 

 fiom us, if it were free, at the first feeling of fear which we 

 should make it experience, or it would hold us in aversion if it 

 were captive. The only method by which we can attract it and 

 render it familiar is by inspiring it with confidence, and this 

 confidence can only be inspired by benefits. It is therefore by 

 such benefits that all attempts to reduce an animal to a state of 

 domestication ought to commence. 



Good treatment especially contributes to develop the instinct 

 of sociability, and to diminish proportionally all the propensities 

 that mi>j;ht act in opposition !o it ; and for this reason, no sub- 

 jection in animals is ever so complete as that which is obtaiued 

 by operating an amelioration of their condition. 



As our means of ^ood treatment are various, and as the effect 

 of each of them differs, according to the different nature of the 

 animals on which they are made to act; the choice of them 

 is far from being a matter of indifference, and they require to 

 be accurately appropriated to the object in view. 



To satisfy the natural wants of animals would be a means 

 which eventually might bring about their submission, especially 

 if applied to very young animals; but, unless the employment 

 of this means were continued for a very long time, the bonds 

 which it would form would be feeble. The good which, in this 

 manner, an animal would have received from us, would have 

 been procured by itself, had it possessed the power of acting 

 conformably to its natural disposition. To attach" animals, 

 therefore, it would not probaly be enough to satisfy their wants ; 

 more is Dccessary; and it is, in fact, by increasing iheir wants, 

 or by creating new ones, that we attach them to us, and, so to 

 speak, reudcr the society of man necessary to them. 



Hunger is one of the most powerful of the means which are 

 at our disposal for captivating animals; and as the extent of a 

 benefit is always in proportion to the necessity which is ex- 

 perienced of it, the gratitude of the animal is so much the 



