THE AUTUMN CROCUS 143 



give for humanity's gift of the gab ? Anything 

 short of a garrulous chatterbox of a mouse must 

 be a wretched mouse ! 



How contorted a view to take when every 

 Hving thing (except, perhaps, man) is capable of 

 adequate communion with its kind, and when 

 that which is adequate is happy I The method 

 of communication may not be man's method ; he 

 may not understand a sound of it, and there may 

 even be no sound for him to hear ; nevertheless 

 there is language clear and effective — perhaps 

 more clear and more effective than his own. Who 

 shall say the language of the ant or the bee is 

 not more developed and more efficient than either 

 English or Chinese ? Efficiency does not ulti- 

 mately lie in complexity, neither does it ultimately 

 depend upon noise. 



I have no doubt that a horse, unless he has 

 better sense, feels the profoundest pity for his 

 garrulous master, and counts him among the most 

 unhappy of his acquaintances. A lion's roar or 

 a bat's squeak may contain a wealth of information 

 such as it would take Man an hour's hard talking 

 to translate ; and both may indicate a world of 

 happiness. 



Man, the rowdiest animal in Creation, is also 



