He
observed them, scrutinized them, tried them, analyzed them and
dissected them in every imaginable way; and whole lives were
devoted to nothing but the study of their habits, their
faculties, their nervous system, their pathology, their
psychology, their instincts. All this led to certainties which,
among those supported by our unexplained little existence on an
inexplicable planet, would seem to be the least doubtful, the
least subject to revision. There is no disputing, for instance,
that the horse is gifted with an extraordinary memory, that he
possesses the sense of direction, that he understands a few signs
and even a few words and that he obeys them. It is equally
undeniable that the anthropoid apes are capable of imitating a
great number of our actions and of our attitudes: but it is also
manifest that their bewildered and feverish imagination perceives
neither their object nor their scope. As for the dog, the one of
all these privileged animals who lives closest to us, who for
thousands and thousands of years has eaten at our table and
worked with us and been our friend, it is manifest that, now and
then, we catch a rather uncanny gleam in his deep, watchful eyes.
It is certain that he sometimes wanders in a curious fashion
along the mysterious border that separates our own intelligence
from that which we grant to the other creatures inhabiting this
earth with us.
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