THE IRISH SETTER
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the minds of men of great learning and respectability, men who can be
sure to obtain at any time, should need arise, a clean bill of political
health. I refer to the very controversial problem of whether animals are
guided by instinct alone or also possess reason.
In working on this problem I applied strictly scientific methods: It
was a definitely established fact that my dog exhibited traits which were
alien to his species. These traits had, as far as I was able to ascertain, not
been noticed in any other dog in or near Marseille. The fishermen I
queried looked at me in astonishment. I could see that these good people
thought I was a little cracked. No sane person would ask whether they
had ever seen any dogs eating seafood. Marseille dogs, they said, ate, like
all dogs, meat and not gulls' food. And if they chased gulls, they merely
did it for fun. There was nothing strange for me in the attitude of these
fishermen. Other people had frequently reacted similarly when I brought
up questions and suspected me of being slightly off. Had I not raised any
questions and thus aroused suspicion, I would not be a refugee.
Proceeding from what was known to what was unknown to me, I con–
tinued to study the dog and compared the results of my observations with
those of the researches made by others. I read all available books and
publications dealing with the subject in question. Carefully I weighed the
value of one theory as against that of another, without becoming, however,
learned enough myself to make an attempt at combining the positive
elements of the conflicting theories, ideas, and points of view into a syn–
thesis or higher union of all. In other words: in spite of my serious
interest in the problem I haven't succeeded in contributing anything to its
solution. Realizing, finally, that a purely psychological approach would
not get me to the root of the problem at hand, I abandoned my theoretical
&tudies and extended my researches into another field where I can claim to
have made a few discoveries.
One day I had gone to the shore and taken a swim without having
eaten anything before leaving. As I sat there hungry on the beach, I felt
he stirrings of very strange instincts in me. I immediately thought of my
og. And addressing myself to him who sat near me, I said: "Now I
elieve I know that you adopted a diet which is unworthy of a good dog
like you because you are starved. Am I not right?" In answer to this he
rew closer and looked at me as one who would say, "You said it."
Following the same line of thought, I arrived step by step at a very
efinite conclusion: This was a stray dog. His master had left him. Pea–
le tried to get rid of their dogs because they had nothing to feed them.
tray refugees catch stray dogs and eat their meat. My dog was in too
educed a state to be found tempting even by those fellows. My dog took
o eating the crabs and clams he could catch from the gulls. This is how
he acute shortage of food affects men and animals. To say that both, men
nd animals, were-under existing circumstances-forced to adopt habits
hich we thought belonged to a state of things we'd overcome, merely
eant stating a fact.
This fact has, it is true, no direct bearing on the problem as to
