268 THE REY. THEODORE WOOD, F.E.S., ON 
result of such a shock is to induce some kind of hypnotic 
condition. And, since we know that a similar condition can 
often be artificially engendered merely by gazing intently at 
some bright object, it may, perhaps, be that the gaze of the 
animal’s eyes has some influence in bringing it about. 
In this connexion the question of serpent fascination, and 
its supposed dependence upon the steady gaze of the eyes, 
will at once occur to us. 
3. THE question which constitutes the third part of our 
enquiry—namely, whether animals suffer by recollection or 
anticipation of past or future pain—may be unhesitatingly 
answered in the negative. It is true that some few 
domesticated animals do occasionally appear to remember 
bygone sufferings, but only, as a rule, when those sufferings 
are in some way called to their minds. Dogs, too, un- 
doubtedly suffer at times in anticipation, and clearly dread 
the beating which they know will follow some act of 
mischief. These, however being domestic animals, are ipso 
facto unnatural, and beyond the limits of our enquiry. 
In Nature, properly considered, there is nothing of. the 
kind. Pain past is pain forgotten and done with; 
possible pain to come never clouds the enjoyment of the 
moment. Wild animals, in fact, seem to live entirely 
in the present; and suffering, when it comes, has neither 
been dreaded nor foreseen. 
Neither have animals any terror of death, of which, 
indeed, as concerning themselves, they seem to know 
absolutely nothing. If a wild animal meets with the dead 
body of even one of its own kind—domesticated animals 
sometimes behave differently—it either passes it by as an 
object utterly devoid of interest, or it inspects it with a 
languid curiosity, or it hails it with delight as affording 
the material for a substantial meal. But it never seems to 
draw from it the inference that its own decease must one day 
take place. Farmers hang up dead rooks to scare living 
rooks from their fields, and game-keepers suspend the 
carcases of weasels, stoats, cats, hawks, and owls as a 
warning to other “vermin.” But even these worthies them- 
selves would hardly assert that such warnings are ever 
effectual. 
We must not, of course, omit all reference to the instinct 
of self-preservation, which might perhaps be considered as 
implying the existence of a knowledge of pain or death. 
