1884.] 
Canine Intelligence. 15 
neighbour s mental calibre we endeavour to ascertain what 
aie the subjects to which his mental activity is devoted ; 
and to get any accurate notion of a dog’s mental calibre we 
must surely do the same. 
^ ^ can however, is to point out one or two 
tolerably obvious general considerations. In the first place 
we must not forget that it is the primary aim of cognition 
to serve as a guide to action, and that conversely cognition 
is itself determined by action. Nor must we forget that the 
piimary motive of action is the attainment of pleasure and 
the avoidance of pain. I say the primary aim and the 
primary motive ; for with physical and intellectual develop- 
ment there are brought into play new principles, namely, 
the postponement or even suppression of action, the striving 
after pleasures that are remote and must be reached indi- 
rectly, and sympathetic actions performed partly for the 
pleasure of others. The nature of canine cognitions must 
therefore be determined by the nature of the self-regarding 
or sympathetic pleasures sought (and pains to be avoided), 
and by the nature of the actions which are essential to the 
attainment of that pleasure or avoidance of that pain. 
Unfortunately, however, this conclusion, whatever may 
be its theoretical value, is of very little service practically, 
from the difficulty of its application. We may say, indeed, 
that the pleasures aimed at by the dog are in the main 
personal, that the object of their actions is for the most 
part self-gratification. But even here, in civilised dogs, if 
one may so call them, the peculiar influence of the com- 
panionship of men has wrought a great change ; so that 
many actions are performed by the dog for his master’s sake. 
Nothing, indeed can be more striking than the way in which 
some dogs seem able to sympathise with their master’s 
moods ; and the same is true of their aftions towards their 
canine companions. No one who has had the opportunity 
of watching the habits of the dog can doubt that the more 
refined and delicately organised individuals feel keenly for 
the wounds or sickness of their companions. Dr. Andrew 
Wilson described, in the columns of “ Nature,” an habitual 
piece of unselfishnes on the part of a mongrel dog, “ who 
for some years before the death of an old deaf and blind 
companion was accustomed to proceed to his resting-place, 
and bark in his ears, to warn him of the presence near at 
hand of the milk which the mistress of the house was 
accustomed to place for the delectation of both.” And a 
friend of my own tells me of a dog who went to the kitchen 
and begged a chop-bone for “a miserable-looking white dog,” 
