Menta I Power of A nimals. 9 3 



knowledge of yards, feet and inches — yet he is clearly 

 trying to judge the distance. Finally, just as his 

 master disappears through a gateway, the agony of 

 his ' mind ' rises to the highest pitch. He advances to 

 the very brink — he half springs, stays himself, his 

 hinder paws slip down the steep bank, he partly loses 

 his balance, and then makes a great leap, lights with a 

 splash in mid-stream, and swims the remainder with 

 ease. There is, at least, a singular coincidence in the 

 outward actions of the two. 



The gamekeeper, with dogs around him from 

 morning till night, associated with them from child- 

 hood, has no doubts upon the matter whatever, but 

 with characteristic decision is perfectly certain that 

 they think and reason in the same way as human 

 beings, though of course in a limited degree. Most 

 of his class believe, likewise, in the reasoning power 

 of the dog : so do shepherds ; and so, too, the la- 

 bourers who wait on and feed cattle are fully per- 

 suaded of their intelligence, which, however, in no 

 way prevents them throwing the milking-stool at their 

 heads when unruly. But the concession of reason is 

 no guarantee against ill-usage, else the labourer's wife 

 would escape. 



The keeper, without thinking it perhaps, affords a 

 strong illustration of his own firm faith in the mind 



