SAGACITY OF THE HORSE. 377 



then to go into a field and eat as much of a sheep as satisfied 

 his appetite. He next went into the river to wash his mouth, 

 and returned afterwards to his kennel, put his head into the 

 muzzle again, and lay very quietly down to sleep. 



Mr. Morand, a surgeon in Paris, had taken into his house 

 the dog of a friend which had broken its leg, and good- 

 naturedly cured it. Some time after, this dog scratched at the 

 door of Mr. Morand's study, and, on being admitted, introduced 

 another dog, to whom the same accident had happened, and who 

 could hardly crawl along after his guide. The first dog plainly 

 showed by his caresses what he wanted, and the surgeon, admiring 

 his sagacity, took charge of his protege and cured him likewise. 



Whole volumes might be filled with similar well-authenticated 

 instances of the dog's intelligence ; and it is surely not one of 

 the least interesting Harmonies of Nature that the animal which, 

 by its courage, fidelity, attachment, and obedience, is most 

 fitted to be the companion of man should also have been gifted 

 with a sagacity necessary to give their full value to all its other 

 qualities. The ox is able to perform his patient duties without 

 any great display of intelligence; docility and obedience, in 

 addition to considerable muscular strength, were all the qualities 

 he required to play his part among our household animals ; 

 while the nobler horse, destined for more brilliant though not 

 more useful services, has been endowed with a sagacity very 

 superior to that which has been allotted to the bovine races. 

 His courage, strength, and fleetness, his symmetrical form and 

 grandeur of deportment, are unalloyed by any quality injurious 

 to other creatures, or calculated to create the aversion of man, 

 whose orders he implicitly obeys, whose severest tasks he under- 

 takes with a cheerful alacrity, and to whose pleasures he con- 

 tributes with animation and delight. He understands the 

 words and the signs of his rider ; he knows exactly the road 

 he has once travelled, and is able to find his way home through 

 the darkness of the night. Like the dog, he is sensible of praise 

 or reproof, and is filled with a generous emulation to vanquish 

 his competitors in the race. Nor is this all, for, when called to 

 bear our warriors to the battlefield, nothing can exceed his 

 martial ardour. 6 His neck is clothed with thunder ; the glory 

 of his .nostrils is terrible ; he paweth the valley, and rejoiceth 

 in his strength; he goeth on to meet the armed men; he 



