That beasts have sense as well as they?
For me--could I the ruler be--
They should have just as much as we,
In youth, at least. In early years,
Who thinks, reflects, or even fears?
Or if we do--unmeaning elves--
'Tis scarcely known e'en to ourselves.
Thus by example clear and plain,
We for these poor creatures claim
Sure sense to think, reflect, and plan,
And in this action rival man:
Their guide--not instinct blind alone,
But reason, somewhat like our own!"_

The wonderful world in which we live is full of animal life. In the
great forests, under the ground, on the steep mountainsides, in the
depths of the oceans, rivers, streams, from the frigid north to the
torrid south, in the parched deserts, are animals of every size, colour,
and form, all of which are, in their general form, adapted to their
peculiar places in nature. Their lives and habits undeniably demonstrate
proofs of divine wisdom, intelligence, and beneficence. In fact they
show an aptitude in many arts and sciences second only to that shown in
man.

The reason that animals are often held in such low esteem by the world
of science, is because people are apt to look upon them as natural
mechanisms and overlook what they are doing and feeling. The propounders
of false statements which attribute every act of an intelligent
animal--second only to man and his faithful ally--as due to instinct
only, deal with metaphysical reasoning. They have never considered the
innumerable and irrefutable facts of animal life which no acuteness of
analysis and pure thinking can ever explain. Most of these narrow,
bookish men deny to animals capabilities which every country schoolboy
knows they possess. It is no exaggeration to say that animals exist
which sing, dance, play, speak a language, build homes, go to school and
learn, wage warfare, protect their homes and property, marry, make laws,
build moral codes, in fact, do everything that is generally attributed
to man.

In comparing man and animals scientists are prone to ascribe to man as a
whole the faculties which only the best trained and most talented
possess. They fail to consider our cannibal brethren, such as are found
among the Dyaks on the Island of Borneo, whose chief articles of
adornment in the house are heads of murdered men, and whose savage and
fiendish ways would put to shame a civilised animal. They forget how
long man lived on this earth before he even learned to make fir