Page:Man Who Laughs (Estes and Lauriat 1869) v2.djvu/30

10 his notions. Homo is a dog made perfect. Let us venerate the dog. The dog—curious animal!—sweats with its tongue and smiles with its tail. Gentlemen, Homo equals in wisdom, and surpasses in cordiality, the hairless wolf of Mexico, the wonderful xoloïtzeniski. I may add that he is humble. He has the modesty of a wolf who is useful to men. He is helpful and charitable, and says nothing about it. His left paw knows not the good which his right paw does. These are his merits. Of the other, my second friend, I have but a word to say. He is a monster. You will admire him. He was abandoned years ago by pirates on the shores of the wild ocean. This third one is blind. Is she an exception to the general rule? No, we are all blind. The miser is blind; he sees gold, but he does not see true riches. The prodigal is blind; he sees the beginning, but not the end. The coquette is blind; she does not see her own wrinkles. The learned man is blind; he does not see his own ignorance. The honest man is blind; he does not see the thief. The thief is blind; he does not see God. God is blind; the day he created the world he did not see the devil manage to creep into it. I myself am blind; I speak, and do not see that you are deaf. This blind girl who accompanies us is a mysterious priestess. Vesta has confided her torch to her. She has in her character depths as soft as a division in the wool of a sheep. I believe her to be a king's daughter, though I do not assert it as a fact. A laudable distrust is an attribute of wisdom. For my own part, I reason and I doctor, I think and I heal. Chirurgus sum. I cure fevers, miasmas, and plagues. Almost all our melancholy and sufferings are issues, which if carefully treated relieve us quietly of other evils which might be worse. All the same I do not recommend you to have an anthrax, otherwise called a carbuncle. It is a stupid malady,