WHERE INSTINCT FAILS. 243 



quiet horse, and was neither frightened nor enraged : 

 but if he was either the one or other, he would pro- 

 bably kick till a broken leg would be the result ; for 

 in cases of fright or anger it seems one of the attributes 

 or weaknesses of the horse that he loses all instinct. 

 We can then do nothing with him, and can only apply 

 brute force to brute force. The horse with the furze 

 behind him did not resist, because the punishment 

 was not severe enough to alarm his fears or rouse his 

 anger : but if, instead of the furze, I had put a row of 

 sharp spikes behind him, the pain would have had the 

 effect of producing both : he would have kicked at the 

 spikes at once, and the oftner he was wounded by 

 them the more violently would he have kicked till he 

 was too far maimed to kick any longer: his anger 

 would have been roused, and then, though instinct 

 would make him try to kick away the object of his 

 fright or anger, it would not teach him that, by stand- 

 ing quiet, the object would not again injure him. Pas- 

 sionate men often do that which their reason, if they 

 gave themselves time to exert it, would tell them 

 must injure themselves : still do they it : Are we to 

 expect more reason in a brute? 



It might at first thought appear injudicious, even 

 cruel, to tempt anything to do wrong, when the com- 

 mission of the offence would lead to certain punish- 

 ment. It would be so with a rational being in most 

 instances, because we could tell him that such would 

 be the case ; but even in this case it would sometimes 

 be judicious, nay merciful, to make him feel all this. 

 For instance : if a boy would be constantly venturing 

 on the bank of a river alone, it would be perfectly 

 kind to allow him to fall into it when some one was 

 at hand to get him out : if a child would play with 



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