A BEAVER'S REASON 



lower animals, but it is not thought; something 

 restrains them, but it is not judgment; they are 

 provident without prudence; they are active with- 

 out industry; they are skillful without practice; they 

 are wise without knowledge; they are rational with- 

 out reason; they are deceptive without guile. They 

 cross seas without a compass, they return home 

 without guidance, they communicate without lan- 

 guage, their flocks act as a unit without signals or 

 leaders. When they are joyful, they sing or they 

 play; when they are distressed, they moan or they 

 cry; when they are jealous, they bite or they claw, 

 or they strike or they gore, — and yet I do not sup- 

 pose they experience the emotions of joy or sorrow, 

 or anger or love, as we do, because these feelings in 

 them do not involve reflection, memory, and what 

 we call the higher nature, as with us. 



The animals do not have to consult the almanac 

 to know when to migrate or to go into winter quar- 

 ters. At a certain time in the fall, I see the newts all 

 making for the marshes; at a certain time in the 

 spring, I see them all returning to the woods again. 

 At one place where I walk, I see them on the rail- 

 road track wandering up and down between the 

 rails, trying to get across. I often lend them a hand. 

 They know when and in what direction to go, but 

 not in the way I should know under the same cir- 

 cumstances. I should have to learn or be told ; they 

 know instinctively. 



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