INSTINCT AND INTELLIGENCE 71 



run and row he takes part in, as vivid and exciting as 

 the reality. What an eventful history could a poacher's 

 dog unfold were he gifted with speech ! How stirring, 

 adventurous, and hazardous a life, requiring the keenest 

 perception of the senses of sound, smell, and sight, all 

 ears and eyes in fact. A history, too, that would let in 

 a flood of light on the vagaries of human nature. 



Begarding the fidelity and affection of horses and eli *y,. 



and obedi- 



dogs, and the obedience of the latter, no one who has ence of 



horses and 



made pets of them will for a moment deny. Some will dogs 

 say, more especially as regards horses, that it is purely 

 and only an affection of the stomach. It may in the 

 first instance so originate ; but if you are in close and 

 constant touch with your horse or dog in hunting, 

 shooting, and other sports, and if you show sympathy 

 and affection for them, they in their turn will re- 

 ciprocate your feelings with ardour and devotion. 

 And, after all, how is an infant's or even a child's affec- 

 tion derived, but through the same material medium 

 of food, prompted and aided by an instinctive feeling 

 ' which germinates from affinity ? And that a dog has The con- 



J science of 



a conscience in other words, that he possesses a dogs 

 consciousness which enables him to distinguish between 

 right and wrong, or has a sense so akin to it as to 

 arrive at the same result by some mental process of 

 reasoning I fully believe. One has only to watch a 

 dog closely, as I have done scores of times, when he 

 has misbehaved himself, or done something wrong 

 stolen a piece of meat, for instance, or gone into a room 

 that he had no business in and when he is spoken to 

 you can see by the look which comes into his eyes, and 

 by his manner all over, as he crouches down or shrinks 



