21 December: Lola was still in the same broken condition: she had been off after the game since about mid-day on the 20th, and had only returned home in the evening. I addressed her with evident displeasure in my voice, saying: "Have you any excuse to make for such behaviour?" "Yes." "Then what is it?" "ich one er." ( = I am without honour). "But, Lola! you are only making things worse--if you are naughty and go off like this after the game!" "zu schwer zu leben!" ( = too difficult to live!). "Lola! how can honour be made good again?" "wen ich sterbe!" ( = if I die!) ... and here the "romance" ended (but not Lola's life!). After a few days she got better and soon became as lively as ever--the wild and excitable creature she is by nature, whom none would take to be the mother of four children--and a "learned dog"--into the bargain! The thing is--could the dog have caught up an _impression_ from some human mind--something she had heard said in conversation, and which she had--in some mysterious way--assimilated and applied to her own life? I cannot tell, but I almost feel as if this must have been the case. There can be no doubt that animals _have_ a sense of honour, yet it would seem unlikely for it to function in the manner above narrated. Yet how much remains still unaccounted for within a dog's soul--how many attempts at unravelling will have to be made before the right clues have been touched, which shall lead us to our goal within this labyrinth. There is so much which it is impossible to bring into co-ordination with the human psyche, for though there are many fundamental impulses, common to both man and beast, we cannot approach the subject, nor yet measure it according to our human standards, where the psychology of a dog is in question. Another thing: in educating these dogs specially reared for experimental work--we should be careful on no account to suppress those instincts, which are natural to them as _dogs_--i.e. their "dog-individuality," transforming this--either by praise or blame. Just as certain conceptions and feelings, held by different peoples differ fundamentally, so too, has every animal a _something_ which is _its very own_, an _innate something_, and this--in order to successfully accomplish our ends--must be held inviolate. Now, this is, of course, very difficult--since to instruct and educate an animal is, of itself, an infringement on its true nature--and, indeed, the same might be said respecting the life it leads among human beings. Yet I believe that where an animal _feels_ that its own inner nature is left unmolested we may often succeed in "_hearing the animal speak within the animal_" (if I may so put it), rather than its "human connexion." That sentence of Lola's: "wegen ihren Augen und Sorgen ohne Ruhe" ( = because of their eyes and their sorrows without ceasing) certainly "rang true"--one could feel it as the answer was being given--yet--where the meaning is dubious, as in