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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