AXIMAL DEPRAVITY. 



187 



preserve their health; in the latter case they 

 bring upon themselves disease or perhaps death. 

 If the gluttonous animal gives unchecked play to 

 its propensities, does not the temperate animal, 

 like the temperate man, resist temptation, and 

 exercise a certain amount of self-restraint ? Is it 

 not, for so doing, equally entitled to credit ? 



The Rev. G. Henslow, in his able and inter- 

 esting work on the " Theory of Evolution of Liv- 

 ing Beings," makes some remarks which must 

 here be taken into consideration if only for their 

 cool naivete of assumption. Says this author: 

 " In obeying those laws of self-preservation and 

 propagation which have been impressed upon it, 

 it is extremely probable that wild animals eat 

 and drink not for the purpose of eating and drink- 

 ing, but to maintain bodily life only. The laws 

 of propagation are obeyed, but union is probably 

 not resorted to for mere union's sake. Animals 

 show no signs of distinguishing the object from 

 the means. Man alone can see that eating is 

 pleasant, and so often eats for the mere sake of 

 eating, and similarly of other pleasures." 



If animals eat only to maintain life it is some- 

 what strange that they are so extremely nice in the 

 quality of their food. Birds and wasps, in their 

 visits to our gardens, select fruit with a care sur- 

 passing that of any human epicure. They attack 

 only the finest pears, peaches, etc., and of these 

 they eat only the sunny side. Mr. Henslow con- 

 founds the result of an action with the motive. 

 Man, at least in his adult state, and possibly the 

 higher animals, know that the result of eating is 

 , the prolongation of life, and that abstinence would 

 be ultimately fatal. But neither man nor animal, 

 as a rule, eats from any other motive than to 

 avoid the pains of hunger and to secure the pleas- 

 ures of eating. We will even venture to say that 

 the less ultimate results are held in view in the 

 gratification of any physical appetite the more 

 perfectly those very results are obtained. As re- 

 gards the "laws of propagation," we can bring 

 forward facts proving that among animals union 

 is resorted to for mere union's sake. Into what 

 absurdities men are led by their notions of what 

 is " extremely probable !" 



It may be urged that the moderation of an 

 animal may spring, not from its greater power of 

 self-control, but from its feebler appetites. We 

 cannot deny that this is a possible explanation. 

 But it may, with equal right, be extended to man 

 also. Who knows that the temptation which the 

 saint resists is really as strong as that to which 

 the sinner succumbs ? Are we not, in cases of 

 reformation of character, frequently left in pain- 



ful doubt whether the " convertite " is forsaking 

 his vices or his vices forsaking him ? 



Alcoholic excitement is not one of the pre- 

 vailing vices of brutes, from the satisfactory rea- 

 son that they are under the operation of a natu- 

 ral Maine law. 1 Two cases of drunkenness, in 

 a cow and a sow respectively, are on record. 

 Both these occurred in Scotland. It is only fair 

 to surmise that the offending animals, like some 

 of their two-legged compatriots, thought fit, in 

 the words of Hudibras, to — 



'• Compound for sins they were inclined to, 

 By damning those they had no mind to." 



A later instance of undeniably " beastly " 

 drunkenness is given in the Greenock Advertiser. 

 Two rats got "that fou" in the shop of a spirit- 

 merchant in the town by dint of consuming the 

 dribblings from a barrel of strong ale, and were 

 killed before they could stagger off to their holes. 



It is generally known that most of the quad- 

 rumana, when thrown among human society, 

 learn very readily to like a glass of strong liquor 

 — a fact which should go far to establish their 

 title to a place on the right side of the "gulf." 

 It is no less certain that some of the less reputa- 

 ble monkeys are captured by leaving near their 

 haunts vessels filled with a kind of beer. They 

 come, drink and become drunken, and in that 

 state commit the very venial error of mistaking 

 the negro, who comes to lead them into captivity, 

 for one of their own species. 



From alcoholism we are naturally led to the 

 love of the narcotics, as tobacco, opium, Indian- 

 hemp, coca, and the like. That man has a widely- 

 spread craving for these so-called " keys of par- 

 adise," has been sufficiently shown. But apes, 

 also, in captivity have been known to indulge in 

 the " weed " with evident relish. Imitation, say 

 you? Probably enough; but has imitation no 

 part in the spread of these minor vices among 

 mankind ? Nine smokers out of ten first take to 

 the pipe or the cigar from the tendency — common 

 alike to man and brute — of doing what others 

 do. A love for tobacco in the solid form, also, is 

 not peculiar to man. At a tavern in Bradford 

 there flourished some years ago a goat, whose ex- 

 ploits in tobacco-chewing were not unknown to 

 fame throughout the " land of woolen." A fre- 

 quenter of the house occasionally won money 

 from strangers, by betting that "himself and 

 another" would eat a pound of tobacco in ten 

 minutes. If the wager was accepted be would 



' 1 This is not literally true. Alcohol, in small doses, 

 is being detected in natural productions, in which man 

 has had no part. 



