that he is expected to bring forth the leaf indicated." Nor was there
any justification for the critic who thought he could put the essence of
the report of December, given in Supplement IV, into the following
words: "He (Hans) showed that he has the power of attention, can draw
logical conclusions, and can communicate the result of his
thinking,--and all this independently." Yet none of this had been
asserted. The whole thing may be explained satisfactorily by means of a
process of simple association established between the signs observed in
the master and certain reactions on the part of the horse. The fact that
the movements made were so exquisitely minute does not change the matter
in the least. Such signs call for a high degree of sensory keenness and
great concentration of attention, but by no means an "extremely high
intelligence."
[Footnote AD: An illustration is given by Babinet[66] concerning the
horse of an English lord. Mr. Burkhardt-Foottit, also, that
excellent trainer, who has been master for more than forty of the
most highly-trained horses, tells us that while sitting on a
well-managed horse it sometimes happened that he had merely thought
of making a certain turn, when the horse immediately executed it,
before he, the rider, had to his knowledge given any sign or aid. An
observation belonging under this head is also made in Tolstoi's
"Anna Karenina"[67], this perfect mine of acute psychological
observation. In the famous description of the race we are told
concerning Count Wronskij riding his Frou-Frou just behind Machotin
mounted upon Gladiator, who was leading the race: "At the very
moment when Wronskij thought that it was time to overtake Machotin,
Frou-Frou, divining her master's thought, increased her pace
considerably and this without any incitement on his part. She began
to come nearer to Gladiator from the more favorable, the near side.
But Machotin would not give it up. Wronskij was just considering
that he might get past by making the larger circuit on the off-side,
when Frou-Frou was already changing direction and began to pass
Gladiator on that side." Similar experiences might be gathered
elsewhere. Not infrequently the reflection of the rider that his
horse had not for a long time indulged in some trick peculiar to
him, will immediately call it forth; or doubts on the part of the
rider concerning the possibility of crossing some barrier, are often
the cause of the horse's fall or of his refusal to leap and of his
running away.]
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