62 Wild Beasts 



like this, whether we really know anything worth speak- 

 ing of about inferior animals,, and if it is possible to use 

 expressions like "cruel as a tiger," "brave as a lion," or 

 " sagacious as an elephant," rationally. As for any philo- 

 sophical, or, as Spencer calls it, " completely unified knowl- 

 edge " on the subject, nobody possesses it ; at the same 

 time the natural sciences may be so applied as to bring 

 certain truths to light in this connection. It is plain, for 

 example, that an elephant does not kill his keeper because 

 he is fond of him ; but it is one thing to start out with the 

 assumption that this noble-hearted, affectionate, and mag- 

 nanimous animal would never have been guilty of such an 

 act unless it had been maltreated, and it is another, and 

 quite a different course to begin with the fact that the 

 deed was done by a brute in whose inherited nature no 

 radical change could by any possibility have been effected 

 by such training as it has received. If now we endeavor 

 to ascertain what that nature was, — study the records of 

 behavior in wild and domesticated specimens, and look at 

 this by the light which biology and psychology, without 

 any assumptions whatever, cast upon it, — we shall find our- 

 selves in the best position for investigating any particular 

 case under consideration. Many accounts of such murders 

 have been given at length. We know how, why, when, 

 and where the animal began its enmity, and the manner 

 in which it was shown or concealed, so that, having in- 

 vestigated the matter in the way described, we are, to a 

 certain extent, able, not to generalize the character of this 

 species, but to put aside immature opinions, and say that 

 since very many elephants exhibit traits which are in con- 



