FAULTS OF TERMINOLOGY. 15 



master no sinister object can possibly, as a rule, be sus- 

 pected. 



Man commits equal error in the epithets applied to 

 his brother man which are, or are supposed to be, com- 

 plimentary to animal virtues. For instance 



1. When we say ' brave as a lion ' we commit a grave 

 error ; for the lion, so far from being a brave, is naturally a 

 cowardly animal. 



2. The majesty of the eagle is also very much so far 

 as the term relates at least to mental qualities a fiction of 

 the poet and the public. 



Equal error, then, is committed by man in regarding 

 animals as emblems or embodiments of human virtues or 

 vices, a subject that is further discussed in another chapter 

 (on animal reputation). 



Other illustrations of an incorrect and objectionable phra- 

 seology are to be found in such terms as 



1. Dumb, or mute, as applied to the lower animals, im- 

 plying inability, by a supposed want of all language, to make 

 their wants or feelings known to man or to each other. This 

 is one of those numerous mistakes attributable to man's 

 ignorance, the fact being that animal language is quite as 

 eloquent and efficient in the eyes of those who have studied, 

 and consequently understand, it as can be the mere spoken or 

 written language of vain man. 



2. Lower, as applied to other animals tha.n man. No 

 doubt, on the whole or as a group, other animals are zoolo- 

 gically, and psychically, as well as structurally, lower than 

 man. But it is not true that all animals are necessarily lower 

 psychically than all men; for the converse is true, that many 

 individual animals dogs, horses, elephants, parrots are 

 both morally and intellectually higher than thousands of men 

 even in the very centres of Western and modern civilisation. 



3. Raving, as applied to the delirium or mania of 

 animals incapable of speech. There are, however, excep- 

 tional cases, in which the use of such a term is not only not 

 so absurd as may at first sight appear, but is quite legitimate 

 for instance, in the case of parrots able to speak, sometimes 

 in more than one human language. 



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