LIABILITY TO ERROR. 493 



cognised it is avowed and amended ; on the contrary, in 

 highly sensitive animals such as the dog the fear of 

 human ridicule, the dread of detection by a master or 

 mistress and of punishment following detection, lead to 

 various efforts at the concealment of error, from at least 

 human eyes. 



Thus a terrier that had worried a toy (imitation) cat, 

 ' finding we were laughing at his discomfiture,' tried to 

 make believe that ' it had only been a sham fight from the 

 beginning,' thereby 'evidently wishing to hide his mistake:' 

 an action that was 'very human,' as c it behaved just as a 

 clever child might be expected to do, when it had been de- 

 ceived, and was afraid of ridicule' (Wood). 



It has been already stated that animals are ready to 

 detect the blunders of their fellows the old, for instance, to 

 notice the faults of the young ; and one result of this is, that 

 those which have the power punish the generally younger 

 individuals, or smaller and feebler animals, that commit 

 these mistakes. 



Thus ants not only detect, but punish for mistakes. Other 

 animals, like man, have, moreover, to pay the natural penalty 

 of their mistakes : experience a knowledge of the means of 

 avoiding, or of correcting error has to be purchased some- 

 times at heavy cost. The recognition of errors in offspring, 

 and the consequent chastisement of the young, for their faults 

 of omission or commission, are more fully treated of in the 

 chapters on ' Law and Punishment,' and on ' Education ; ' 

 while the question of responsibility to, and punishment by, 

 man, is discussed in those on ' Moral Eesponsibility ' and on 

 ' Crime and Criminality.' 



The mental means by which the discovery of error is 

 made are obviously the same in the lower animals, and in 

 savage or civilized men. Mistakes can be detected and cor- 

 rected only by the use of reason. When it is defective or 

 deranged, there is an incapacity for discovering, and con- 

 sequently for amending, error; seeing that, where it is not 

 perceived, or found out, error cannot be rectified. Hence 

 many animals exhibit a peculiar liability to error without 

 being at all aware of its commission, without having any 



