250 A PURGE FOR THE MIND 



back the way they came, and in a very few minutes 

 the cloud of dust faded away on the horizon. 



What was the animals' motive? Doubtless it was 

 nothing but an impulse of play, one of those out- 

 bursts of infectious joy which occasionally seize on 

 wild social animals, and set them off as if mad. It 

 was as if they had said to one another: "Come, let 

 us rejoice in our power and speed! Let us show our- 

 selves to that fierce hunting double-beast, man-and- 

 horse, with his spear and dagger and far-killing gun 

 — let us stare at him in his own citadel just to mock 

 at him and challenge him to chase us!" 



To return to the subject of the braying of the ass. 

 Incidentally the sound does (or should do) the listener 

 a lot of good, since it purges his mind of old, false, 

 contemptible ideas, or rather old literary conven- 

 tions, which in the course of long ages have come to 

 be articles of faith, and are so common in the lan- 

 guage that you can't read a book or a chapter, 

 scarcely a page, or listen to a speech or lecture or 

 sermon, but this vile lying notion of the ass as the 

 incarnation and type of stupidity will somehow be 

 dragged in. Perhaps it originated in early Greece; 

 that nasty little jeering spirit which delights to mock 

 at and caricature the life of which we are part is not 

 like an Eastern growth. At all events I doubt that 

 an Arab or Chinese or Thibetan or East Indian, 

 when he fails to hit the mark, or trips and drops 

 something from his hand, or is forgetful, or care- 

 lessly knocks something over, instantly compares 

 himself to a long-eared animal. How it is in other 



