MENTAL CONSTITUTION OF ANIMALS. 173 



there, as well as in the most accomplished adults. The 

 difference between mind in the lower animals and in man 

 is a difference in degree only ; it is not a specific differ- 

 ence. All who have studied animals by actual observa- 

 tion, and even those who have given a candid attention 

 to the subject in books, must attain more or less clear 

 convictions of this truth, notwithstanding all the obscurity 

 which prejudice may have engendered. We see animals 

 capable of affection, jealousy, envy ; we see them quarrel, 

 and conduct quarrels, in the very manner pursued by the 

 more impulsive of our own race. We see them liable to 

 flattery, inflated w r ith pride, and dejected by shame. We 

 see them as tender to their young as human parents are, 

 and as faithful to a trust as the most conscientious of hu- 

 man servants. The horse is startled by marvellous ob- 

 jects, as a man is. The dog and many others show^tena- 

 cious memory. The dog also proves himself possessed 

 of imagination, by the act of dreaming. Horses, finding 

 themselves in want of a shoe, have of their own accord 

 gone to a farrier's shop where they w r ere shod before. 

 Cats, closed up in rooms, will endeavor to obtain their 

 liberation by pulling a latch or ringing a bell. It has 

 several times been observed that in a field of cattle, when 

 one or two were mischievous, and persisted long in an- 

 noying or tyrannizing over the rest, the herd, to all ap- 

 pearance, consulted, and then, making a united effort, 

 drove the troublers off the ground. The members of a 

 rookery have also been observed to take turns in supply- 

 ing the needs of a family reduced to orphanhood. All 

 of these are acts of reason, in no respect different from 

 similar acts of men. Moreover, although there is no 

 heritage of accumulated knowledge amongst the lower 

 animals, as there is amongst us, they are in some degree 

 susceptible of those modifications of natural character, 

 and capable of those accomplishments, which we call 

 education. The taming and domestication of animals, 

 and the changes thus produced upon their nature in the 

 course of generations, are results identical with civiliza- 

 tion amongst ourselves; and the quiet, servile steer is 

 probably as unlike the original wild cattle of this country 

 as the English gentleman of the present day is unlike the 

 rude baron of the age of King John. Between a young, 

 unbroken horse and a trained one, there is, again, all the 

 difference which exists between a wild youth reared at 



