260 DOCILITY OF ANIMALS. 



must not conclude that the elephant understands language, 

 but that, like the dog, he has a strong discerning faculty. He 

 distinguishes esteem from contempt, friendship from hatred, 

 and many other emotions which are expressed by human ges- 

 tures and features. For this reason, the elephant is more 

 easily tamed by mildness than by blows. 



" I have frequently remarked," says Edward Terry, " that 

 the elephant performs many actions which seem to proceed 

 more from reason than from insunct. He does every thing 

 which his master commands. If he wants to terrify any per- 

 son, he runs upon him with every appearance of fury, and 

 when he comes near$ stops short, without doing him the small- 

 est injury. When the master chooses to affront any man, he 

 tells the elephant, who immediately collects water and mud 

 with his trunk, and squirts it upon the object pointed out to 

 him. The Moguls keep sornfe elephants who serve as execu- 

 tioners to criminals condemned to death. When the conduct- 

 or orders one of these animals to despatch the poor criminals 

 quickly, he tears them to pieces in a moment with his feet ; 

 but if desired to torment them slowly, he breaks their bones 

 one after another, and makes them suffer a punishment as 

 cruel as that of the wheel." 



Next to the elephant, the dog seems to be the most docile 

 quadruped. A wild dog is a passionate, ferocious, and san- 

 guinary animal. But, after he is reduced to a domestic state, 

 these hostile dispositions are suppressed, and they are suc- 

 ceeded by a warm attachment, and a perpetual desire of pleas- 

 ing. The perceptions and natural talents of the dog are acute. 

 When these are aided by instruction, the sagacity he dis- 

 covers, and the actions he is taught to perform, often excite 

 our wonder. Those animals which man has taken under his 

 immediate protection are taught to perform artificial actions, 

 or have their natural instincts improved, by three modes of 

 instruction, punishment, reward, and imitation. More ductile 

 in his nature than most other animals, the dog not only re- 

 ceives instruction with rapidity, but accommodates his beha- 

 vior and deportment to the manners and habits of those who 

 command him. He assumes the very tone of the family in 

 which he resides. Eager, at all times, to please his master 

 or his friends, he furiously repels beggars ; because he proba- 

 bly, from their dress, conceives them to be either thieves, or 

 competitors for food. 



Though every dog, as well as every man, is naturally a 

 hunter, the dexterity of both is highly improved by experience 



