A BEAVER'S REASON 



conscious thought, as we do, for instance, in form- 

 ing the letters when we write. 



Wild animals are trained, but not educated. 

 We multiply impressions upon them without add- 

 ing to their store of knowledge, because they can- 

 not evolve general ideas from these sense impres- 

 sions. Here we reach their limitations. A bluebird 

 or a robin will fight its reflected image in the 

 window-pane of a darkened room day after day, 

 and never master the delusion. It can take no step 

 beyond the evidence of its senses — a hard step 

 even for man to take. You may train your dog so 

 that he will bound around you when he greets 

 you without putting his feet upon you. But do you 

 suppose the fond creature ever comes to know why 

 you do not want his feet upon you ? If he does, then 

 he takes the step in general knowledge to which I 

 have referred. Your cow, tethered by a long rope 

 upon the lawn, learns many things about that rope 

 and how to manage it that she did not know when 

 she was first tied, but she can never know why she 

 is tethered, or why she is not to crop the shrubbery, 

 or paw up the turf, or reach the corn on the edge 

 of the garden. This would imply general ideas or 

 power of reflection. You might punish her until 

 she was afraid to do any of these things, but you 

 could never enlighten her on the subject. The rudest 

 savage can, in a measure, be enlightened, he can 

 be taught the reason why of things, but an animal 

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