COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY 35 



eminent horse-trainer with whom I lately conversed. 

 He holds that every horse should be broken and trained 

 by some one more or less of an expert ; that we expect 

 too great a variety of performance from the same animal. 

 Each is naturally, to a large extent, best adapted for 

 some one kind of work in a word, each is, to a large 

 degree, fitted to be a specialist. But in this case a good 

 many drivers would require to be " broken " also. The 

 brutes are constantly suffering from the stupidity, as 

 well as the moral obliquity of man, their controller, but 

 not always and in all respects their superior. These 

 remarks do not apply alone to the horse or the dog. All 

 animals must first learn that they are to be subject to 

 man when required ; but, as I have always maintained, 

 the highest results are to be secured only by kindness 

 and discretion combined with firmness. A little reflec- 

 tion will show why this must be so. One does not 

 facilitate the working of a steam-engine by any sort of 

 forcible interference with the parts of the apparatus, 

 but by supplying good fuel and duly oiling the machine 

 where friction is greatest. So it is for man to study 

 the mental machinery, so to speak, and provide those 

 conditions most favourable to harmonious working ; in 

 a word, man must adapt to nature and not attempt to 

 make nature adapt to his views. The latter he cannot 

 do ; her plan was laid before he appeared on the scene. 

 If an animal is so stupid or so obstinate as not to yield 

 to such treatment, then it should be abandoned, for it 

 will not be worth any man's while to injure his own 

 moral nature by what is really cruel treatment for the 

 sake of the value of such an animal. 



At another of our meetings Mr Miller referred to the 

 case of a dog that was very anxious to accompany his 

 master, resorting to the artifice of placing himself some 

 two miles in advance on the road usually selected. 

 There are many such instances, and it seems impossible 



