TEMPERANCE AND GLUTTONY 41 



Nevertheless the common theory that animals are greedy 

 and gluttonous is largely due to the fact that a pig's mouth 

 is so made that it cannot eat slops genteelly ; but it must be 

 remembered that the horrible compound called " wash " is 

 not the pig's natural food, though man apparently deems it 

 to be so ! 



Again, cocks and hens, creatures designed by Nature to 

 pick up a living decorously, grain by grain, all day long, are 

 by us kept hours without food, and then called greedy 

 because they hustle over a handful of corn. This applies to 

 almost all domesticated animals ; we ignore their natural 

 habits, and then complain of those we force them to 

 acquire. 



As a rule, wild creatures cannot with justice be called 

 gluttonous. Like Sir Dugald Dalgetty, they may require to 

 lay in provant ; but (except when young and inexperienced) 

 they seldom eat more than they need. 



Moreover, the majority are dainty to a degree which 

 would lift even a human gourmandiser into 2, gourmet. But 

 this daintiness in animals springs largely from a higher 

 source than mere delicacy of taste. It is due to their 

 scrupulous cleanliness. Indeed, were cleanliness really to be 

 counted as next to godliness, and so be included in the 

 cardinal virtues, man would take a very back seat indeed 

 in regard to it. Even the most maligned pig, if given his 

 choice, is a cleanly creature, and a pig-stye is man's creation, 

 not Nature's. There is a rigidity, indeed, about what 

 animals will and will not eat which is purely disconcerting. 

 A cow will eat a salt herring whole and relish it, but offer 

 her the most enticing cup of hay tea in a pail which meat 

 has touched, and no matter how thirsty she is she will not 



