FORTITUDE AND ENVY 29 



by the domestic animals for the service of man ! " He will 

 die in harness" has passed into fit praise for humanity. 



Of course we who have speech can use it in asserting 

 that the cab horse which, racked by pain, limps through 

 the livelong day, often without need for a compulsory whip, 

 does so because it has not brains enough to conceive of any 

 other conduct. 



But on what grounds can we base this conclusion when 

 our only data are the outward signs, and they point indubit- 

 ably to that " undisturbed doing of duty despite discomfort 

 and danger " which we should infer from similar signs in man, 

 and call fortitude ? 



Again, it is open to us who have speech to assert that the 

 amazing endurance of animals is due to their being less 

 sensitive to pain than we are. 



Possibly it may be so ; but it must be remembered that, 

 even as between man and his fellow man, the sensibility to 

 pain appears to differ so widely in degree that every doctor 

 knows it is unsafe to infer the measure of suffering from the 

 endurance of it displayed. 



In addition the argument is radically unsound, since it 

 first infers the insensibility from the endurance, and then 

 accounts for that endurance by the insensibility which it 

 has previously inferred ! A vicious circle indeed ! 



In truth, however, neither of these assertions touches the 

 point at issue : namely, the actual endurance of which 

 animals are capable. What that can be those who have seen 

 a great fodder famine in India know well, and knowing, pray 

 Heaven it may not came into their lot to see the like again. 

 It is a veritable nightmare, that memory-picture of the 

 village cattle — the bread winners — the gold earners — the 



