"
In this way, they explain and teach addition; next, by the
reverse process, subtraction, which is followed by
multiplication, division and all the rest.
At the beginning, the lessons are extremely laborious and demand
an untiring and loving patience, which is the whole secret of the
miracle. But; as soon as the first barrier of darkness is passed,
the progress becomes bewilderingly rapid.
All this is incontestable; and the facts are there, before which
we must need bow. But what upsets all our convictions or, more
correctly, all the prejudices which thousands of years have made
as invincible as axioms, what we do not succeed in understanding
is that the horse at once understands what we want of him; it is
that first step, the first tremor of an unexpected intelligence,
which suddenly reveals itself as human. At what precise second
did the light appear and was the veil rent under? It is
impossible to say; but it is certain that, at a given moment,
without any visible sign to reveal the prodigious inner
transformation, the horse acts and replies as though he suddenly
understood the speech of man. What is it that sets the miracle
working? We know that, after a time, the horse associates certain
words with certain objects that interest him or with three or
four events whose infinite repetition forms the humble tissue of
his daily life.
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