The Dawn of Reason; or, Mental Traits in the Lower AnimalsWeir, James, Jr.
Science
The Dawn of Reason; or, Mental Traits in the Lower Animals
Weir, James, Jr.
Psychology, Comparative; Reason
The higher animals sometimes show, unmistakably, that the maternal love
of offspring has taken a step upwards, and that it has become, in a
measure, refined by the addition of an æsthetic, if not ethical,
element. For instance, a dog acquaintance of mine, on the advent of her
first puppies seemed to be exceedingly proud of them; she not only
brought them, one by one, to her mistress for admiration, but she also
brought them in to show to her master, and yet again, to myself, who
happened to be visiting her owner at the time. She deposited them, one
by one, at the feet of the person whose regard she solicited, and,
after they had been admired, she returned them to the kennel. Here, in
my opinion, was an instance of pride, which has its prototype or
exemplar in the pride of the young human mother who thinks that her baby
is the handsomest child that was ever born! The dog's actions cannot be
translated or interpreted otherwise. Again (and in this instance,
strange to relate, the proud parent was the male), a cat brought his
offspring, one by one, from the basement to my room, two stories above,
in order to exhibit them! He brought them, one at a time, and, after
each had been admired, carried them back to their box in the basement.
Loud were his purs and extravagant were the curl of his tail and the
arch of his back! No father of the genus Homo could more plainly evince
his pride in his baby than did this cat in his kittens. The mother cat
came with him on his first trip; she evidently did not quite comprehend,
at first, the intentions of her spouse. She soon found out, however,
that he meant no harm to her young, so she allowed him to work off his
superabundance of pride without let or hindrance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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