352 Life and Immortality. 



There is the bark of joy or welcome, when the animal sees 

 its master, or anticipates a walk with him ; the furious bark 

 of anger, if the dog suspects that anyone is likely to injure 

 himself or his master, and the bark of terror when the dog is 

 suddenly frightened at something which it cannot understand. 

 Supposing, now, that its master could not see the dog, but 

 could only hear its bark, would he not know perfectly well 

 the ideas which were passing through the animal's mind ? 

 Most certainly he would. There is a difference between the 

 mew of distress and the ordinary conversation, the purr of 

 pleasure, of a cat. A pet canary always knows how to call 

 its mistress, and when it sees her will give a glad chirrup of 

 recognition quite distinct from its ordinary call. Bees and 

 wasps have quite a different sound in their wings when angry 

 than when in the discharge of their ordinary work. Any one 

 conversant with their ways understands the expression of 

 anger and makes the best of his way off. 



All the foregoing are but examples of sound-language. 

 The gesture-language of animals, however, is wonderfully 

 extensive and expressive. A cat, could it say in plain words, 

 " Please open the door for me," could not convey its ideas 

 more intelligently than it does by going to the door, uttering 

 a plaintive mew to show that it wants help, and then patting 

 the door. Dogs, or, in fact, all animals that are accustomed 

 to live in the house, will act after a similar fashion. There, 

 then, we perceive that the lower animals can form connected 

 ideas, and can convey them to man, so that the same ideas 

 are passing at the same moment through the minds of man 

 and beast, evidencing that they possess the same faculties, 

 though of different extent. 



Some few examples must suffice to show the power of 

 gesture-language in the lower animals. I once owned a dog, 

 a variety of hound, which was as companionable as any ani- 

 mal could possibly be. He was never happy unless he was 

 on the go. So fond was he of travel and sight-seeing, that I 

 gave him the name of Rover. My occupation calling me 



