2338 Reason and Instinct. 



heard the plunge of a water-rat which he had disturbed. I listened 

 for the plunge of the dog ; but to my surprise — for I knew him by no 

 means slack in the pursuit of such game — it did not follow. I turned 

 to see the reason, and it was at once apparent. The dog had, the 

 moment the rat plunged, gone four or five yards down the bank ; and 

 there he stood at the edge of the water, one foot up, ready to dash up- 

 on his victim the moment it appeared at or near the surface. In ano- 

 ther second I saw him make his spring, and a few moments later he 

 was at my feet with the dead rat in his mouth. Now, surely we can- 

 not say that the dog acted thus by instinct. We cannot say he acted 

 " without intelligence," " without any view to consequences," " with- 

 out knowing for what end or purpose he acted," or even " without 

 deliberation " and " independently of experience." For why did he 

 not dash into the water in instant pursuit ? Why did he not run up- 

 stream instead of in the contrary direction ? Why, because he must 

 have i( judged of self-evident things" and " drawn conclusions from 

 them," viz., that in the water the rat would very likely elude him, — 

 that the rat would not swim against, but with, a tolerably strong 

 current, — that the rat must emerge some little way down-stream, 

 therefore, — and that, if he went down to be ready, he would be sure 

 to capture his prey ; this being the end and motive of the action of 

 his in question. I might mention several other instances of sagacity, 

 as they are generally called, presented in the actions of this same dog. 

 But I will rather go on to one performed by another, a retriever — to 

 use the name given in sporting phrase. His master was shooting in 

 a preserve in Norfolk, which, like multitudes in some parts of that 

 county, was surrounded by a kind of earthen or turfen wall, with holes 

 or meuses cut at intervals at the bottom of the wall, to allow of the 

 free exit and ingress of the game. The sportsman shot at and 

 wounded a hare, which, however, contrived to make its escape through 

 one of these holes, and was not seized by the retriever until it had 

 gone to some little distance on the common which bordered the pre- 

 serve. On returning to the wall with the hare, the dog endeavoured 

 to leap the wall, as it had done when coming out in pursuit. The 

 weight of the hare in its mouth, however, rendered the endeavour 

 fruitless once and again. The dog soon discontinued its useless 

 efforts, but instead of returning — like a creature sans resources — to its 

 master without his game, he quietly trotted along to one of the meuses, 

 laid the hare down at the outlet, pushed it as far through as he could, 

 and then, easily leaping the wall, seized the hare on the other side, 

 dragged it through, and carried it to its destination. Was all this 



