ANIMALS LED BY SENSE OF CURIOSITY 151 

 expression : " My natural sense of curiosity 

 compelled me to go and see what it was." 



Exactly ; his innate sense of curiosity over- 

 whelmed all considerations at the moment the 

 occurrence took place. 



The subconscious mind is in action before 

 the intellect can be brought into line. The 

 animal having no intelligence is simply led on 

 indefinitely by its sense of curiosity, even 

 though it be to destruction ; but notwith- 

 standing, this sense of curiosity would appear 

 to be one of nature's schemes for self-protec- 

 tion. So long as their surroundings are 

 entirely normal the creatures live and function 

 in complete harmony with nature, for they 

 themselves are parts of the natural surround- 

 ings ; but when an5i:hing abnormal occurs a 

 discordant note is struck which destroys the 

 harmony ; it no longer rings true. The con- 

 sequence is the animals become restless, and 

 are impelled to go and inspect the cause of the 

 disturbance though they are powerless to 

 reason out the circumstance, and cannot tell 

 whether the appearance portends danger or 

 not. The result is that the creatures are 

 either scared into the panic condition, or else 

 held to the spot, fascinated. 



In most cases an unnatural happening would 

 be fraught with danger, especially to animals. 



