We are, however, in all
cases sure in these half-animate species, the plants, that they will
prove perfectly obedient to our will. It is otherwise, however, with
wild animals. Here we have to deal with intelligences in which the most
striking characteristic is an abiding fear of the master, and a general
indisposition to submit to any other control than that of their native
wild instincts. The measure in which this wilderness habit, bred of long
contention with enemies, prevails in animals varies greatly. Some, as
for instance the elephant, at once reconcile themselves to human
association, and directly on being made slaves accept the mastery of
their captors. Others, such as the zebra, remain for a lifetime
possessed of their original savage nature. A large part of the labor
which has been given to the work of domesticating by the breeder's art
the score of mammalian species which man has won to his use has been
devoted to this task of expelling the wilderness motives from these
forms. The cases in which he has failed to accomplish this end are those
in which the savage humor has persisted for so long a time that he has
been forced to abandon his effort to subdue the stock.

It seems likely that at the present time we have acquired from the
wilderness nearly all the animals which are capable of adoption by
such brief and individual experiments as have won to us the species
which constitute our flocks and herds. Our future gains will have to
be made by far more deliberate and continuous endeavors. These tasks
of the hereafter will have to be undertaken in a way which will insure
a continuity of effort such as can only be attained by permanently
organized associations which may continue their essays if needs be for
centuries. The work should be done with two distinct ends in view:
first, to determine what members of the wilderness life may be made
to contribute to the needs of man; and, second, how far it is possible
so to develop the intelligence of the lower animals in general as to
make them better fitted for companionship with our kind. This
last-named line of experiments needs to be undertaken not only with
reference to varieties now wild, but also upon our most domesticated
forms, for, as before remarked, we have not begun to explore the
possibilities of intellectual gain, even in those species which have
been the longest associated with us.

In considering a list of the creatures which might well be made the
su