5 



absolutely incapable, so to speak, of getting" outside 

 of itself. It cannot extend its power beyond its 

 natural instinctive faculty, and thus we find no animals 

 improving their condition, socially or otherwise. 



INCIDENT OF AN OFFICER'S HORSE. 



We have read how an officer, in a recent Eastern 

 campaign, was wounded and fell from his horse ; 

 how the sagacious animal returned to where he 

 was lying and stood near him till, by an almost 

 superhuman effort, he was able to mount, when the 

 horse galloped forward to rejoin his comrades. This 

 horse, in the extraordinary circumstances of the case, 

 may have been scared by something unknown to his 

 wounded rider and returned to him in the most 

 natural way conceivable, or, probably, by the merest 

 chance. He may have taken fright at some unusual 

 object, heard his rider's calls, or been trained when 

 "broken in" to return when his rider fell off — (which 

 excellent acquirement in a horse shall be fully dealt 

 with in a future chapter). Various unexplained events 

 may have caused the horse to return, of the existence 

 of which the unfortunate officer could not possibly 

 be cognisant. Self-preservation is the first law of 

 nature, and the wounded officer, after getting fairly 

 astride him, might unconsciously apply the rowels 

 to the flanks of the horse, and his mad haste to 

 rejoin his comrades might be materially accelerated 

 by a touch of the spur, an indication of the rein, 

 or a desultory warning bullet from the enemy. The 



