THE RELIGION OF NATURE 



if hurt, would howl for help ; but moaning would 

 serve no such purpose in the case of internal 

 disease." 



When a horse refuses to be led out of a burning 

 stable, so long as it can see the flames, it is because 

 in moments of panic the old wild instinct to flee 

 from danger rises above the acquired habit of 

 obedience to man, and it refuses to be led past the 

 flames. When blindfolded it finds one direction as 

 good as another, and submits to be led. 



When a dog which is ill moans it merely follows 

 the gregarious instinct to attract the attention of 

 comrades to its distress. The dog cannot consider 

 the meaning of its own actions, and, even if it 

 could, nature has not given it the power of dis- 

 tinguishing between those kinds of distress which 

 comrades can relieve and those which they cannot. 

 Even human beings instinctively weep when dis- 

 tressed, without the slightest conscious knowledge 

 of the proper and original meaning of their 

 lamentation. 



A third correspondent sent an 'interesting ac- 

 count of what he took to be reasoning on the part 

 of a cock. It occurred during a fight between a 

 white Leghorn and a dark cross-bred bird: 



" Finding himself getting the worst of it, the 

 dark cock turned and ran for a holly-bush, whose 

 branches grew within five or six inches of the 



[92] 



