WAYS OF NATURE 



" Deep in him — so deep that he barely realizes its 

 existence — slumbers a desire for freedom and an 

 unutterable longing for the blue sky and the free 

 air." When his training is begun, " he meets it with 

 a reserved majesty and silent indifference, as though 

 he had a dumb realization of his wrongs." All this 

 is a very human way of looking at the matter, and 

 is typical of the way we all — most of us — speak of 

 the lower animals, defining them to ourselves in terms 

 of our own mentality, but it leads to false notions 

 about them. We look upon an animal fretting and 

 struggling in its cage as longing for freedom, pictur- 

 ing to itself the joy of the open air and the free hills 

 and sky, when the truth of the matter undoubtedly 

 is that the fluttering bird or restless fox or lion sim- 

 ply feels discomfort in confinement. Its sufferings 

 are physical, and not mental. Its instincts lead it 

 to struggle for freedom. It reacts stronglj'' against 

 the barriers that hold it, and tries in every way to 

 overcome them. Freedom, as an idea, or a concep- 

 tion of a condition of hfe, is, of course, beyond its 

 capacity. . 



Bostock shows how the animal learns entirely by 

 association, and not at all by the exercise of thought 

 or reason, and yet a moment later says : " The ani- 

 mal is becoming amenable to the mastery of man, 

 and in doing so his own reason is being developed," 

 which is much like saying that when a man is prac- 

 ticing on the flying trapeze his wings are being de- 

 240 



