THE ASIATIC ELEPHANT. 175 
superior to every other beast, have been misled by 
outward appearances, and by the natural prepossession 
arising from his gigantic and imposing figure. Without 
his trunk, upon the singular and admirable structure of 
which most of that skill and dexterity which have been 
regarded as the result of mental reflection is entirely 
dependent, he would be, in all probability, as very a 
brute as the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus, or the hog. 
By means of that organ, however, he unquestionably 
- acquires the capacity of performing feats of which other 
animals are incapable; but here his superiority ends. 
In intelligence, as in docility, he is far inferior to the 
dog; and many other quadrupeds might fairly compete 
with him in both. Thus to turn a key in a lock, to push 
back a bolt, to untie a rope, to uncork a bottle, to search 
in the pockets of his keepers for apples or oranges, these 
and many other tricks of a similar kind, for which he 
is famous, are evidently nothing more than mechanical 
actions, to the performance of which he is stimulated, 
like other beasts, at first by the promise of reward or the 
fear of chastisement, and afterwards by the mere force of 
habit. In like manner the dexterity with which he learns 
to load and unload himself, or to place a man or child 
upon his back by means of his trunk, without offering 
them the slightest injury; and on the other hand the 
precision with which he is made to execute the will of 
the Asiatic despot on the unhappy victims of his dis- 
pleasure, by seizing them and casting them beneath his 
feet, to be there dispatched, according to the tenor of the 
orders which he receives, either with a single crush, or 
with all the horrors of a lingering death; these also are 
actions of no higher order than many other animals are 
