346 Life and Immortality. 
while he was given the command to eat, but, like the cul- 
tured creature he was, everything was done orderly and 
decently. Almost any animal can be thus trained to subject 
its natural instincts to its reason. 
Fishes are not known to possess much reason. There is 
not an angler, nevertheless, that will not tell you that he has 
had the powers of his mind taxed to the utmost in his 
efforts to induce an old and wary trout to take the bait, and 
even when he has succeeded in hooking him, it has greatly 
tried his genius for planning to prevent the fish from break- 
ing his line. Natural instinct teaches a fish to fly from man, 
and even one’s shadow on the water will frighten away the 
fish and destroy an angler’s hopes of success. Yet we have 
seen a pond full of gold-fish which were quite tame, and 
which, when they saw a human being at the side of the pond, 
would come forward instead of showing alarm. They were 
so perfectly confiding that they would take a piece of bread 
or biscuit out of his hand. Here, then, is an example of the 
instinct, which urges them to flee from man, being overcome 
by the reason, which tells them to approach him. 
Animals of burden may often be seen attending to pre- 
scribed work without any supervision. Dray-horses, as is 
well known, sometimes take pleasure in their work. I knew 
of a horse of the kind that was as much interested, appar- 
ently, in his work as his owner. He never had to be told 
when to move, for all the while the dray was loading he was 
observant of everything, and, knowing the capacity thereof, 
was ready when the look from the master told him to pro- 
ceed. Horses have sometimes shown a knowledge of the 
amount of work they are supposed to perform ina day. A 
case has been cited of a horse by Mr. Wood that was 
capable of doing his work without a driver. He belonged 
to the owner of an American mine. As soon as his cart 
was filled with ore, at a given signal he went off to the 
spot where the ore was to be dumped, waited until the cart 
was unloaded, and then returned for another load. So many 
