And the strangest thing is that
this astonishing discovery, is in no wise the natural consequence
of a new invention, of processes or methods hitherto unknown. It
owes nothing to the latest acquirements of our knowledge. It
springs from the humblest idea which the most primitive man might
have conceived in the first days of the earth's existence. It is
simply a matter of having a little more patience, confidence and
respect for all that which shares our lot in a world whereof we
know none of the purposes. It is simply a matter of having a
little less pride and of looking a little more fraternally upon
existences that are much more fraternal than we believed. There
is no secret about the almost puerile ingenuousness of Von
Osten's methods and Krall's. They start with the principle that
the horse is an ignorant but intelligent child; and they treat
him as such. They speak, explain, demonstrate, argue and mete out
rewards or punishments like a schoolmaster addressing little boys
of five or six. They begin by placing a few skittle-pins in front
of their strange pupil. They count them and make him count them
by alternately lifting and lowering the horse's hoof. He thus
obtains his first notion of numbers. They next add one or two
more skittles and say, for instance:
"Three skittles and two skittles are five skittles.
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