288 Wild Beasts 



In the main this squares with what is known of com- 

 parative psychology, and of the Felidce in particular. But 

 like most sweeping assertions upon beasts or men, it is not 

 wholly accurate. Many animals are exceedingly vain, 

 nearly or possibly quite as much so as savage men, and 

 vainer they could not be. Now this trait is inseparable from 

 a desire for praise, and although it is no more necessary to 

 feel any respect or affection for the persons who gratify 

 this longing, than it is to love people because they are able 

 to excite jealousy, creatures with such a disposition will 

 always solicit approbation, and be pleased when it is 

 accorded. Certainly this was the case with Gato, who was 

 fond of display, and delighted in being noticed and ad- 

 mired ; who did many things for the express purpose of 

 being praised, and claimed commendation as plainly as if 

 he had been able to speak. 



The faces of brutes, similarly with those of human races 

 which differ greatly in appearance from the observer, at first 

 all look alike. But afterwards one begins to discriminate, 

 and finally distinguishes differences between them, and 

 changes in the same individual at different times. While 

 Gato lay by the fountain listening to the wind murmur 

 through the great tamarind boughs that shaded him, heard 

 the water fall, saw the fleecy trade-wind clouds sail slowly 

 overhead, and was evidently neither asleep nor lethargic, 

 but keenly observant of every sight and sound, how easy 

 would it have been to fit his reflections to the scene ; " to 

 opine probably and prettily," as Bacon expresses it, and 

 provide the chained savage with poetic resignation, or in- 

 dignant sorrow, to make him feel and think in forms 



