LVII. Human Nature in Dumb Creatures 



IT is a mistake to suppose that any quality, 

 habit, trick, failing, weakness, virtue or other 

 characteristic is peculiar to mankind. The 

 dumb creatures about the place have every one 

 of them. If I were to watch them carefully I feel 

 sure that I could find instances of everything from 

 the Seven Deadly Sins to the Seven Cardinal Virtues, 

 and that without leaving the barnyard. It is all 

 very well for us to talk about getting rid of our 

 animal natures as if that would mark an upward 

 step in our development but what interests me is how 

 to rid the dumb creatures of what can only be de- 

 scribed as their human natures. It is always the 

 human things they do that arouse my wrath or make 

 me laugh. For instance, our old gobbler gives 

 every evening one of the most human exhibitions of 

 over-bearing meanness that I have ever witnessed. I 

 thought it was only society people, and a particularly 

 annoying brand of them at that, who had the habit 

 of waiting until other people were comfortably 



221 



