6 MENTAL QUALITIES OF THE HORSE. 



will have lost his instinctive timidity to such an extent that 

 he will go through flames, or gallop up to a tiger or 

 other terrifying wild beast, on receiving the signal to do 

 so from the hand and leg of his rider. With age, the 

 instincts of every-day life grow stronger in the horse which 

 is in a wild state. He becomes more and more watchful 

 and difficult of capture ; and his love of freedom and 

 impatience of control increase with his years. Hence, the 

 later his education is attempted, the harder will it be to 

 impart. 



A habit, to be fully established, must have become auto- 

 matic, in which process memory (or the power of connecting 

 ideas) plays a large part. The 'bus horse which has learned 

 to associate the sound of the bell or of the conductor's foot 

 on the platform, with the idea of going on, will have 

 acquired the habit of starting forward the moment he hears 

 the well-remembered signal. 



Memory, as I have indicated, co-exists with conscious- 

 ness, and is possessed by all animals which are capable of 

 learning by experience. The study of animal life leads us 

 to the conclusion, I venture to think, that animals are able 

 to associate in their minds only concrete ideas ; and that 

 the association of abstract ideas is confined to mankind. 

 Perhaps a more correct division of memory would be : 

 memory of facts, and memory of chains of reasoning. Even 

 fish possess good concrete memory. If we make a practice 

 of feeding fish which are kept in a pond, these animals of 

 low nervous development will quickly learn to connect the 

 impression which our appearance makes on them, with the 

 idea of food, and, on seeing us, will hasten to place them- 



