Field sports, the slaughter of wild and at length of tame animals,
prepared the way for men to kill one another, 158. Have brutes a
soul? they certainly have sense and imagination, 160. They learn to
desire some things and to avoid others, 161. They have expectation,
memory, design, hope, fear, desire, and grief, 161. If they have
sense, they have understanding, 161. They have what in men is
called understanding, 162. Men punish dogs and horses for their
faults, as if for the purpose of producing repentance, 162. Beasts
are susceptible of pleasure, joy, anger, fear, 163. But are they
capable of virtue? 163. They love their offspring, 164. They may have
reason, and yet not have it perfectly, or in a high degree, 164. As
sight and swiftness exist in different degrees, so may reason and
mental force, 165. Animals differ widely in their faculties, as in
their habits, 165. Many brute animals excel men in the faculties
of sight and hearing, as well as in swiftness and strength; but we
may not therefore say that men are blind, &c., 166. There are mad
dogs and horses; what is this but a disturbance of the reason? 167.
Mankind are chargeable with great injustice in dealing with beasts
as they do, 169. There is a necessary and convenient use of the
brute creation, 169, 170. Beyond this, we ought not to go, 170. In
the exercise of what so nearly resembles reason, do land animals
excel those that live in the water? 172. There is sufficient reason
to believe that they do, 173. Observe the habits of bulls, lions,
and elephants, 173. Of the ichneumon, of swallows, and spiders,
174. Of bees, crows, geese, and cranes, 175. The contrivances and
labors of emmets, 176, 177. The sagacity of the elephant and the fox,
178, 179. The affection of the dog for his master; some striking
instances related, 180, 181. Story of a mule at Athens, 182. Another
dog story, 182, 183. The elephant that carried King Porus, 183. The
horse Bucephalus, 183. Where there is one virtue in a brute, there
are commonly others, 183, 184. Instances of subtlety and cunning,
184-186. Elephants and lions have a taste for society, 187. Amorous
propensities of some brutes towards mankind; singular instances
given, 188. Starlings, magpies, and parrots learn to talk, 188, 189.
Swans and nightingales sing, 189. Story of a magpie at Rome imitating
the music of trumpets exactly, 190. Wonderful docility of a dog, 191.
Men have learned of the spider to weave; of the swallow to build;
and have acquired from other animals skill in medicine, 191, 192.
Some oxen have learned to count, 193. Soothsaying and divination is
by means of birds, 194. What now can be said of the sagacity and
intelligence of fishes and other water-animals? living in the sea,
and remote from our observation, they are but little known to us,
195. Crocodiles come when called, 196. Fish are not easily caught,
a proof of great cunning and wariness, 197, 198. Fish stand by and
defend each other in danger, 199. Sagacity of the dolphin and the
cuttle-fish, 200. Subtlety of the fish in taking their own prey,
the torpedo, polypus, and others, 201, 202. Sagacity of the tunny,
203, 204. Mutual affection of the crocodile and the trochilus, 206.
Sagacity of fish in depositing their spawn, 207, 208. Care of the
tortoise and crocodile for their young, 209, 210. Intelligence and
conjugal affection of the halcyon, 211, 212. Story of a dolphin
which served as a guide to messengers of Ptolemy Soter, king of
Egypt, 213, 214. The dolphin, a solitary instance among the brutes of
disinterested love for man, 214. Stories of affectionate dolphins,
215, 216.