And in this connection it is
interesting to notice the great results of man's training and
education in the dog. For the wolf and the jackal, the dog's
nearest relatives, if not his actual ancestors, are not especially
intelligent mammals. Compared with them the dog is a sage and a
saint.
The earliest form of action is the reflex. This is independent of
both consciousness and will. The only conscious voluntary action of
the animal is limited mainly or entirely to the recognition and
attainment of food. The motive for the exertion of the will is the
appetite, and the will is the slave or mouthpiece of the body. Far
higher than this is the stage of instinct. Here the animal is
conscious of its actions and new motives begin to appear. But the
animal is guided by tendencies inherited from its ancestors. The
will has, so to speak, advisory power; it is by no means supreme.
But with a wider and deeper knowledge of its environment, with the
memory of past experiences, carried by the higher locomotive powers
into new surroundings, brought face to face with new emergencies
outside of the range of its old instincts, it is compelled to try
some experiments of its own. It begins to modify these instincts,
and in time altogether does away with many of them. It has risen a
little above its old abject slavery to the appetites, it is slowly
throwing off the bondage to heredity.
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