liVTRODUCTION. 49 



effectually prevented any noisome stench from proving 

 injurious to them. This account I had from Mr. Ro- 

 binson himself, and I make no doubt the curiosity it- 

 self still remains in the family. This anecdote, I think, 

 infers that these busy wanderers can compare, com- 

 bine, and, perhaps, reason abstractedly. It is evident, 

 from what occurred, that they can converse ; and their 

 conduct throughout proved them under a guidance su- 

 perior to that of instinct. For instinct cannot be sup- 

 posed to combat against such accidents as result from a 

 cultivated or domestic state : on the contrary, the capa- 

 bility of so guarding against unnatural and improbable 

 contingencies, presupposes reflection and forethought. 

 The instinctive principle might have driven the bees to 

 destroy the toad, without doubt ; but the prevention of 

 the after effects likely to arise from it, and the unani- 

 mity in the means pursued for the purpose, bespeak the 

 highest efforts of reason. The following pages will pro- 

 duce instances of equal, if not of superior, intellectual 

 phenomena in the dog. 



Having, as I hope, satisfactorily proved that our 

 subject, the dog, has rational powers ; it remains to 

 inquire how these have been cultivated to produce that 

 obedience and utility which now so eminently distin- 

 guish him. Had the dog enjoyed the properties of in- 

 stinct only, he would have proved but an indifferent 

 subject for cultivation. It has already been attempted 

 to be proved, that instinct admits of little, if any, im- 

 provement ; but, on the contrary, those faculties which 

 are purely rational admit of great increase. In wild ani- 

 mals, it is this improvement of their reasoning part that 

 gives that traditional knowledge so generally observed 

 among them, by which they increase their comforts, 

 vary their food, and multiply their pleasures : yet these 



