Vill 
WHAT DO ANIMALS KNOW? 
FTER the discussion carried on in the forego- 
ing chapters touching the general subject of 
animal life and instinct, we are prepared, I think, to 
ask with more confidence, What do animals know ? 
The animals unite such ignorance with such 
apparent knowledge, such stupidity with such clev- 
erness, that in our estimate of them we are likely 
to rate their wit either too high or too low. With 
them, knowledge does not fade into ignorance, as 
it does in man; the contrast is like that between 
night and day, with no twilight between. So keen 
one moment, so blind the next! 
Think of the ignorance of the horse after all his 
long association with man; of the trifling things 
along the street at which he will take fright, till he 
rushes off in a wild panic of fear, endangering his 
own neck and the neck of his driver. One would 
think that if he had a particle of sense he would 
know that an old hat or a bit of paper was harmless. 
But fear is deeply implanted in his nature; it has 
saved the lives of his ancestors countless times, and 
it is still one of his ruling passions. 
123 
