ANIMAL EMOTIONS. 



Through the emotions we are apt to 

 judge ourselves somewhat superior 

 to the animal creation, though per- 

 haps a more thorough study and in- 

 terest in the "smiles and tears" of the 

 so-called creatures of lesser intelligence 

 would teach us that the emotions play 

 almost as important and distinctive a 

 part in their organism as in our own 

 oversensitive nerve force. I am not 

 speaking of the emotion of fear and 

 anger that is instinctive in all animals, 

 but of the more subtle emotions of joy 

 and grief as visibly expressed. The older 

 epic writers made much of the grief ex- 

 pressed by horses, and their sorrows 

 have formed many an heroic verse. Mer- 

 rick, in his "Tryphiodorus," says : 



He stands, and careless of his golden grain, 

 Weeps his associates and his master slain. 



Says Moschus : 



Nothing is heard upon the mountains now 

 But pensive herds that for their master low, 

 Struggling and comfortless about they rove, 

 Unmindful of their pasture and their love. 



Virgil, who was probably more con- 

 versant v/ith the horse and his interests 

 than almost any other writer of that far- 

 away period, thus writes of the sorrow 

 of Pallas' steed: 



To close the pomp, Aethon, the steed of state. 

 Is led, the funeral of his lord to wait; 

 Stripp'd of his trappings, with a sullen pace 

 He walks, and the big tears run rolling down 

 his face. 



In the Iliad, Homer thus renders the 

 emotion of Patroclus' war horses evinced 

 for that hero : 



Restive they stood, and obstinate in woe : 

 Still as a tombstone, never to be moved 

 On some good man or woman unreproved 

 Lays its eternal weight ; or fix'd, as stands 

 A marble courser by the sculptor's hands. 

 Placed on the hero's grave. Along their face 

 The big round drops coursed down with silent 



pace, 

 Conglobing with the dust. Their manes, that 



late 

 Circled their arched necks, and waved in state, 



Trail'd on the dust beneath the yoke were 



spread, 

 And prone to earth was hung their languid 



head. 



Shakespeare, in ''As You Like It," 

 tells of the tears shed by a wounded stag : 



The wretched animal heav'd forth such groans, 

 That their discharge did stretch his leathern 



coat 

 Almost to bursting; and the big round tears 

 Cours'd one another down his innocent nose 

 In piteous chase. 



All, or nearly all, animals are sensitve 

 to music, which affects them in various 

 ways, and again it is Shakespeare who 

 refers to this sensitiveness in even un- 

 trained horses, proving its effect to be in- 

 stinctive : 



For do but note a wild and wanton herd 

 Or race of youthful and unhandled colts, 

 Fetching mad bounds, bellowing, and neigh- 

 ing loud. 

 Which is the hot condition of their blood 

 If they but hear perchance a trumpet sound, 

 Or any air of music touch their ears, 

 You shall perceive them make a mutual stand, 

 Their savage eye turned to a modest gaze 

 By the sweet power of music. 



There is an ancient account of the 

 Libyan mares to whom it was necessary 

 to discourse sweet music in order to 

 tame them sufficiently to be milked, and 

 the horses of the Sybarites, who have 

 been taught to dance to certain strains 

 of music, inopportunely heard the same 

 strains of music on their way to battle 

 and very much chagrined their masters 

 by stopping to dance instead of going 

 forward to fight, such was the influence 

 of the familiar tune. De Vere gives an 

 account of a certain Lord Holland who 

 was very eccentric, and used during the 

 time of William HI to give his horses 

 weekly concerts in a covered gallery spe- 

 cially erected for the purpose. He main- 

 tained that it cheered their hearts and 

 improved their temper, and an eye wit- 

 ness says that they seemed to be greatly 

 delighted with the performance. Not at 



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