THE SUMMIT OF THE YEARS 



clawing, pawing, jumping, and seizing. They learn 

 to open gates and doors and pull cords, and many 

 other things. I recently saw a common cur dog that 

 would sing when told to do so; he would lift up his 

 head, and send forth a long, low, rather musical 

 howl. This came easy to him, as howling is one of 

 the dog's natural accomplishments. A dog loves to 

 play at the game of hunting the ball or the stone 

 which you throw, because this act is in a line with 

 his instincts, and he never tires of the fun. Of course 

 a dog can be trained to do almost anything, but to 

 enlighten his mind about the whys and the where- 

 fores of the thing is quite another matter. You can 

 train an animal to act, but can you train it to think? 

 Of course your dog or your horse could not be trained 

 to do its trick did it not possess certain powers that 

 may be called mental, such as power of attention, 

 power of imitation, power of association, and capa- 

 city to feel a stronger will. But these powers are all 

 phases of the animal's instinctive activities, and do 

 not presuppose judgment or reason. When we train 

 an animal, we make, as it were, an artificial channel 

 for its mental currents to flow in, and they flow there 

 without conscious choice or self-direction, as water 

 flows in the channel we make for it. How helpless 

 they feel themselves to be, poor things! If the 

 lions knew their own strength, how they could defy 

 their trainers ! But they have no self-knowledge or 

 self-thought. 



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