472 COUETSHIP AND MARRIAGE. 



10. Selection of proper articles by dogs or otlier animals 

 that act as man's messengers or servants, or that perform on 

 the theatrical stage. 



11. Choice of the best means for the accomplishment of 

 a purpose. 



Choice, however decided it is when made, may not be 

 made at once. As in man, wary, experienced animals feel 

 or know that there are many things to be calmly considered 

 before their mind is made up to any given line of action. 

 They estimate, calculate, or weigh risk or danger ; balance 

 disadvantages and advantages against each other ; * count the 

 cost ' of a proposed procedure, anticipating the results de- 

 ducing consequences from, their causes. They exercise or 

 manifest comparison and reflection. In so simple a matter 

 as the selection of one of several roads the dog, for instance, 

 makes unconscious use of a syllogism (Houzeau). 



On the other hand, there are unfortunate animals, as 

 there are unlucky men, that cannot make up their minds or 

 come to a decision ; that cannot show a rational preference, 

 or a preference of any kind, even in matters seriously involv- 

 ing their own personal interests. In such cases indecision, 

 the incapability of making a distinct choice between two 

 courses of action or things, or between action and inaction, is 

 apt to be as fatal to the animal as to the man. Belt, for 

 instance, gives the case of a mule crossing a ravine : ' When 

 it came near to a place where it could escape the deep mud 

 by going over a stony part, it would slacken its pace and 

 look first at the mud and then at the stones, evidently 

 balancing in its mind which was the least evil. Sometimes 

 .... it would be so undecided which side was the best 

 that, making towards one, it would look towards the other, 

 and end by getting into the worst of the mud. It was just 

 like many men, who cannot decide which of two courses to 

 take, and end by a middle one, which is worse than either.' 

 The typical and familiar ass between its two bundles of hay 

 graphically represents both the state of mind and the action 

 or inaction of such vacillating mules and men alike. 



Preferences, even of what appear to be of a singular and 

 unnatural kind, are determined sometimes in all probability 



