262 DOCILITY OF ANIMALS. 



money, to repair to a known butcher, and to carry home the 

 meat in safety. They can be taught to dance to music, and 

 to search for food, and find any thing that is lost. 



There was a dog formerly belonging to a grocer in Edin- 

 burgh, which for some time amused and astonished the people 

 in the neighborhood. A man who went through the streets 

 ringing a bell and selling penny pies, happened one day to 

 treat this dog with a pie. The next time he heard the pie- 

 man's bell, he ran to him with impetuosity, seized him by the 

 coat, and would not suffer him to pass. The pie-man, who 

 understood what the animal wanted, showed him a penny, and 

 pointed to his master, who stood in the street-door, and saw 

 what was going on. The dog immediately supplicated his 

 master by many humble gestures and looks. The master put 

 a penny into the dog's mouth, which he instantly delivered to 

 the pie-man, and received his pie. This traffic between the 

 pie-man and the grocer's dog was daily practised for several 

 months. 



Dogs, horses, and even hogs, by rewards and punishments, 

 and, I am afraid, often by cruelty, may be taught to perform 

 actions, as we have frequently seen in public exhibitions, which 

 are truly astonishing. But of these we must not enter into 

 any detail. 



With regard to the horse, the gentleness of his dispositions, 

 and the docility of his temper, are so well and so universally 

 known, that it is unnecessary to dwell long upon the subject. 

 To give some idea of what instruction horses receive when in 

 a domestic state, we shall mention some traits of their form 

 arid manners when under no restraints. In South America 

 the horses have multiplied prodigiously, and, in that thinly- 

 inhabited country, live in perfect freedom. They fly from the 

 presence of man. They wander about in troops, and devour, 

 in immense meadows, the productions of a perpetual spring. 

 Wild horses are stronger, lighter, and more nervous than the 

 generality of those which are kept in a domestic state. They 

 are by no means ferocious. Though superior in strength to 

 most animals, they never make an attack. Whenever as- 

 saulted, however, they either disdain the enemy, or strike him 

 dead with their heels. They associate in troops from mutual 

 attachment, and neither make war with other animals nor 

 among themselves. As their appetites are moderate, and they 

 have few objects to excite envy or discord, they live in perpet- 

 ual peace. Their manners are gentle, and their tempers 

 social. Their force and ardor are rendered conspicuous only 



