DISEASES OF THE OX AND SHEEP. 605 



A dog, perhaps, hears, sees, scents, more keenly than a man 

 does ; but the mental processes going on in the canine brain in 

 connection with the sights, sounds, and smells are of a very 

 direct, definite, and simple kind, and are very different indeed 

 from the mental conceptions of a human being subjected to the 

 same or similar influences. Hence^ in animals, and among 

 savages, the kind of perception of sights and sounds and smells 

 which most directly conduces to direct self-preservation is that 

 which is most strongly possessed, and it is also this kind which 

 civilised human beings and domesticated animals have already 

 in many cases lost in great measure, and which they will probably 

 lose still more markedly, in proportion as the need for the 

 exercise of those particular faculties is removed. 



On the other hand, the savages and the lower orders of man- 

 kind are certainly more keen, in so far as their faculties of 

 hearing and seeing subserve direct self-preservation than more 

 civilised and more highly cultivated human beings are. This is, 

 in fact, a necessary order of things ; for if the savage's brain 

 were occupied in unravelling the ins and outs of complex har- 

 monies and melodies, he would be liable to be tardy in getting 

 out of harm's way, and would probably soon be removed from* 

 this world for ever. 



Now civilised men and women have usually plenty of leisure 

 for acute analysis and introspection, and consequently they have 

 clearer mental views of what they see and hear, albeit this may. 

 sometimes be at the expense of a less acutely sharpened readi- 

 ness in seeing and hearing. What they do see and hear, they 

 have an accurate and full perception of; but, at the same time^. 

 they may be slow in regard to hearing and to seeing. 



Of all the organs of sense, perhaps the most complex and 

 most marvellous is that by means of which we see what exists 

 and goes on around us. Probably none know so well the 

 transcendent pleasure of seeing as those who, having once 

 possessed good eyesight, are afterwards debarred by some illness 

 or some accident from the delights of vision. Not only is it an 

 almost indispensable necessity that we human beings should see 

 the things near and about us ; but — and this is a point of great 

 importance — it is one of the greatest and purest pleasures of 

 which the human mind is capable to revel in the sight of the 

 beautiful prospects open to our view. 



