THE BABBIT. 29 



and conjecture the thoughts which would enter the limited 

 minds of the creatures with which he is brought in contact. 



Suppose, for example, that I am training a dog, which happens 

 to be the case at present. If I were to judge the motives of that 

 dog by my own ideas, I should fall into grievous errors, and fail 

 entirely in my object. At present the animal commits various 

 misdemeanours; but, as he does not know them to be such, I 

 should be very wrong were I to punish him for them. He is 

 at present obedient to instinct alone, and, until his reasoning 

 powers have been brought into play, I should not only have no 

 right to punish him for any instinctive act, but should greatly 

 retard the duration of his training. 



Being unused to human society, he had no idea that he might 

 not jump on the table and help himself to meat ; and his only 

 idea of shoes, shawls, and other articles of clothing was, that 

 they were charming playthings, which could be bitten and 

 shaken without hurting his teeth. So, when I see him standing 

 on the table, busily at work on a joint, or come upon him in the 

 act of worrying my favourite shoe, T do not fly in a passion with 

 him and beat him, but quietly put a stop to his proceedings, and 

 tell him that he is not to do so again. Not being terrified by 

 the fear of ill-treatment, he perfectly understands the sense 

 though not the ipsissima verba of the remonstrance, and proves 

 his intelligence by his acts. For example, if he takes another 

 shoe and is discovered, he immediately drops his tail and ears, 

 and looks like the culprit that he is. Being a delinquent, and 

 knowing that he is so, he receives the punishment due to the 

 offence, and ever afterwards the very word " shoe " will make him 

 look utterly ashamed of himself. 



Again, if he scampers over my newly-dug flower-borders, and 

 lies down on my best bed of mignonette, I reflect that, in his 

 position, I should have done just the same thing, not knowing 

 that there was any harm in it. So I call him off the flowers, 

 and explain to him that he is to restrict his gambols to the 

 gravel and lawn. If, after the explanation, he persists in running 

 over the borders, he becomes a conscious delinquent, and is 

 punished accordingly. 



Moreover, I manage so that he fancies the punishment to be 

 inherent in the offence. For example, the animal at present in 

 training is a Skye puppy of the purest breed, and as such is liable 



