Page:A Learned Lecture on Music and Animals.pdf/2

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Pray forgive me.

ADIES, Gentlemen:

Michelet has modestly said that the animals are our inferior brothers, which means that man is the beast's superior brother. We are without any opinion of animals on the score.

What we do know, is that they are good citizens of Nature; that they have rights and duties; and that their intelligence is considerable. Some of them are designated as Domestic animals. Why? I know not.

A great deal has been said about the intelligence of animals. They are even more than intelligent—they are polite. Rarely is an animal rude towards man. It is man who shows a lack in courtesy towards the animal.

For example. A cat is asleep on a sofa; a man comes—and chases the cat away. I have never seen it the other way round—the cat coming and chasing the man from the sofa.

Painters and sculptors have often portrayed animals. In which case these artists are called—"Animalists." They—the animals—seem to ignore their opportunities. They are never called humanistic animals. There is no reciprocity.

Indeed we have no example wither of painting or of sculpture made by an animal. Their taste does not lead them towards these two arts.

Architecture and Music, however, have attracted them—the rabbit constructs tunnels—both for himself and the beagle hound.

The bird builds a nest, a marvel of art and industry, wherein he himself may live with his family—

Even the cuckoo is a fairly good judge of architecture.

We could continue to cite similar examples indefinitely.

So much for architecture.

KNOW of no literary work written by an animal—and that is very sad.

Have animals had, in the past, a literature of their own?

It is quite possible. No doubt, it was destroyed in a large fire—a very, very large fire.