128 HUME v 



to the field, becomes acquainted with the proper height 

 which he can leap, and will never attempt what exceeds his 

 force and ability. An old greyhound will trust the more 

 fatiguing part of the chase to the younger, and will place 

 himself so as to meet the hare in her doubles ; nor are the 

 conjectures which he forms on this occasion founded on 

 anything but his observation and experience. 



" This is still more evident from the effects of discipline 

 and education on animals, who, by the proper application 

 of rewards and punishments, may be taught any course of 

 action, the most contrary to their natural instincts and pro- 

 pensities. Is it not experience which renders a dog appre- 

 hensive of pain when you menace him, or lift up the whip 

 to beat him 1 Is it not even experience which makes him 

 answer to his name, and infer from such an arbitrary sound 

 that you mean him rather than any of his fellows, and in- 

 tend to call him, when you pronounce it in a certain man- 

 ner and with a certain tone and accent ? 



" In all these cases we may observe that the animal infers 

 some fact beyond what immediately strikes his senses ; and 

 that this inference is altogether founded on past experience, 

 while the creature expects from the present object the same 

 consequences which it has always found in its observation 

 to result from similar objects. 



" Secondly, it is impossible that this inference of the ani- 

 mal can be founded on any process of argument or reasoning 

 by which he concludes that like events must follow like ob- 

 jects, and that the course of nature will always be regular in 

 its operations. For if there be in reality any arguments of 

 this nature they surely lie too abstruse for the observation 

 of such imperfect understandings; since it may well employ 

 the utmost care and attention of a philosophic genius to 

 discover and observe them. Animals therefore are not 

 guided in these inferences by reasoning; neither are chil- 

 dren ; neither are the generality of mankind in their ordi- 

 nary actions and conclusions; neither are philosophers 

 themselves, who, in all the active parts of life, are in the 



