REASONABLE BUT UNREASONING 



game would have stimulated his instincts, or set 

 up a reflex action, and put his paws in vigorous 

 motion. He will, in an awkward kind of way, try to 

 remove the burrs and bidens seeds from his coat, 

 and bite at a sliver in his foot — these things irritate 

 him and hence sustain a much closer relation to him 

 than did the poker or the stick of wood ; his instinct 

 of self-defense is more or less aroused by them. 



One's dog will come to cover when it rains, but 

 can one think of him as putting on any cover 

 to keep off the rain, or as bringing in his blanket 

 out of the wet, unless especially trained ? All such 

 minor human acts are quite beyond the capacity 

 of our wild or domestic animals, requiring as they 

 do a certain self-detachment and viewing of things 

 as they are in their relations. 



Touch the spring of an animal's instinct or inher- 

 ited habit, and it responds ; but appeal to its power 

 of independent thought, and it is, for the most part, 

 as helpless as any other machine. 



Birds will remove obstacles from their nests, and 

 a setting hen will steal eggs from a nest within reach 

 of her own. Such behavior shows only how acute 

 and active their instincts are during the crisis of 

 propagation. 



The lower animals all seem to be upon the same 



plane; they are all yet at the breast of Nature, as 



it were, directly and unconsciously dependent upon 



her, while man has long since been weaned and 



189 



