240 MENTAL FACULTIES sec. 



terror, and lie ran away to hide himself under some piece of 

 furniture and look upon the incomprehensible spectacle of a 

 bone which had come to life, from a distance. . . . 



" One day I took him into a carpeted room, where I blew 

 a soap bubble, and then made it glide along the floor by means 

 of a current of air. He at once showed the greatest interest 

 in the bubble, but seemed unable to decide whether the thinf^ 

 was alive or not. At first he was very cautious, and followed 

 the bubble only at a certain distance ; but when I encouraged 

 him, he went nearer with his ears pointed and his tail 

 depressed, evidently with great distrust, and retired immedi- 

 ately it began to move again. After some time, during which 

 I had always kept at least one bubble on the carpet, he 

 became more courageous, and the scientific spirit getting the 

 upper hand over his sense of the mysterious, he became at 

 last bold enough to go cautiously up to a soap-bubble and 

 touch it with his paw. The bubble of course burst at once, 

 and I never saw surprise so strongly expressed. When the 

 burst bubble was replaced by another, I encouraged him to 

 approach it for a long time in vain ; at last, however, he went 

 up to it again and cautiously stretched out his paw as before, 

 of course with the same result. After this second attempt, 

 nothing could induce him to make another, and when I 

 continued to urge him he ran out of the room, to which no 

 coaximj could brino- him back." 



Another mental quality which is to be considered, not as 

 instinct, but as mental faculty of a higher kind, is curiosity, 

 which, even among animals in wdiich other mental powers are 

 but slightly evolved, obviously plays a great part. When I 

 was sketching at Eottum with my sketch-book in front of me, 

 the cows which were grazing around came nearer and nearer, 

 formed a circle round me, and stood motionless, stretchincr out 

 their necks and staring at my paper to see w^hat was going 

 on. They came so near to me as to be a nuisance, and I had 



