UNTAUGHT WISDOM 



A recent nature writer says he can understand an 

 animal only by putting himself for the moment in 

 the animal's place. Will he not in that case make the 

 animal think and reason as he does? Let him put 

 himself in the animal's place and remember what he 

 does from habit, his unconscious automatic acts, and 

 then he will get some insight into animal psychology. 

 When we do a thing from pure habit and uncon- 

 sciously, we act as the animals do, without thought 

 or reason, we know not what we do; like a child 

 when it sucks, or a bird when it sings. 



As we go our round of duties from day to day, we 

 do many little things without thinking about them 

 at all. We shut the door behind us, we wind our 

 watches, we put out the light, or similar slight acts; 

 we do things " absent-mindedly," as we say, and we 

 do them correctly. We know what wonderful feats 

 sleep-walkers sometimes perform, and frogs will do 

 certain acts intelligently with most of their brains 

 removed. The animal's life is evidently a kind of 

 sleep-walking, or absent-mindedness, that is, when 

 compared with our conscious self -direction. We are 

 awake and know that we know, but the dog or the 

 horse is not aware of his own knowledge. 



I do not think the position is tenable which Jordan 

 and Kellogg take in their work entitled " Evolution 

 and Animal Life," namely, that it is a power of choice 

 that distinguishes reason from instinct. A hunted 

 animal may take this course or that without any act 

 209 



