182 ON THE EDUCATION OF THE HORSE. 



Reason" may be said to consist In the facul- 

 ty of associating ideas, and forming conclusions, 

 independently of corporeal action, relative situa- 

 tion, or the presence of the objects reasoned 

 upon. But instinct seems to be confined to the 

 faculty of discriminating between noxious and 

 innoxious food, tlie avoiding danger cither by 

 flight or resistance, and to the performing cer- 

 tain necessary functions, which, it is supposed, 

 the animal has not been taught by others. In- 

 stinct may be improved by age and experience; 

 but it will never render a brute capable of think- 

 ing abstractedly, or without the concurrence of 

 certain signals or appearances which he has been 

 accustomed to associate with particular actions*. 



* The most extraordinary faculty in brutes, is that of 

 finding their way back again, when they have been remov- 

 ed to a considerable distance from their homes. 



This has been attempted to be explained by the supposi- 

 tion of their recollecting the appearance of objects on the 

 road, or the dilTerent scent of the earths over which they 

 have passed. But as both of these must present themselves 

 in an inverted order of succession on their return, it is diffi- 

 cult to conceive that their understanding can be equal to the 

 task of such a counter-arrangement. 



Thus 



