ughty 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 t