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ART OF TRAINING ANIMALS.

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Dr. Kemp thus concisely and clearly stages the difference between instinct and reason: “In the former there is an irresistible impulse to go through a certain series of motions after a certain fashion, without knowing why they are performed, or what their result will be. In the latter the actions depend upon previous mental judgments, are performed or not at will, and the end of them is early anticipated and defined.”

We believe the evidence is too strong to be doubted that many animals do perceive the relation between cause and effect, and that many of their actions, especially when the animals are surrounded by the unnatural circumstances of a state of domestication, must be ascribed to the reasoning power. There was a dog who lived in a strict monastery where the monks dined alone, and who, instead of asking for their meals, obtained them by knocking at the buttery door, the cook answering by opening the door and pushing the allowance through. The dog observed this proceeding and accordingly knocked at the door and laid in wait until the meal was placed outside, and the door shut, when he ran off with it. This he repeated a number of times.