16 THE GOLDFISH AND ITS CULTURE, 
friendship. A fish lacks affection for its master, and therefore 
its departure touches no tender spot within us; we feel sorrow 
for its loss, but we are not moved to tears over it, as would 
be the case with some of us at the death of our pet dog or 
even our pet cagebird. Is this because the fish stands so far 
below man in the scale of life, or because it lives in a differ- 
ent element? And might not the proverb, “As cold as a 
fish,” be traced to this fact? 
