Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1893-08-31
ANIMALS uNDERRATED.
Their Sense of Moral Responsibility
Clearly DeyeIOped.

Is the OI III
every relation between fellow beings.
and a natural consequence of a rational
mode of life in all circumstances and
at all times Perhaps this definition
may not be unacceptable to my read
ers. But why should we not apply
such a high principle to the animal
races as well as to ourselves? Keen
observers have long since proved to us
that animals possess in high degree
the spirit Of sacrifice It seems to me
that this fact can be due only to high
sense of moral responsibility. And it
can hardly be explained except by a
sense of right and wrong.
Few people are prepared to deny the
Spenceriap and Darwinian dogma of
evolution in its entirety. But if we
give ever so little weight 30 these
teachings, then we must admit that
our moral characteristics, as well as
our physical development, can be
traced in their beginnings to the lower
orders. There is no physiological, no
psychological or moral phenomenon
that we cannot find in analogous forms
in the life of the animals and the re-
pugnance with which some people look
upon every attempt to draw a parallel
between the lordly human race and its
humber subjects seems to me very
foolish and unjust. Morality, love, dis
interestedness are such marked charac-
teristics among some divisions of the
animal creation that we could very
well learn from them This is not only
the case among the mammals, but even
among the insects, and those who have
eyes to see and ears to hear may find
that our vaunted superiority in this re-
spect is not SO great as we are inclined
to believe it.
Brehm's great work, "Das Thierle-
ben," is an inexhaustible mine of data
upon this subject. Darwin and Espinas
have also treated the subject very
broadly.
Hunters know how difficult it is to
approach animals which live in herds
and communities. The duty of watch
ing over the safety of all is generally
performed by few only, but with such
an unselfshness and SO conscientiously
that men can hardly equal it. And yet
the animal watchers do not seem to
stand under compulsion!
PelicanS fish in common, and allow
each other to satisfy their hunger,
driving the fish towards each other by
turns. The buffaloes of America, on
the approach of danger, take the weak
and young into the middle of the herd,
and the bulls will often defend herd
when they could easily have saved
themselves by fight. Brehm relates
the case of a young monkey who de-
Tended an old and decrepit one against
a number of dogs, at the risk of his own
life. Capt. Stansbury noticed peli-
can in the lake of Utha which was
quite blind and old, yet apparently
very fat He watched the bird and
found that it was fed by others younger
than itself Prof. Agassiz has
pointed out the conscientiousness in
dogs; and indeed their faithfulness to-
ward their masters is not sufficiently
regarded. If we are told that this is
the result of training, may we not also
point out that a similar exhibition of
scrupulous behavior in men is the result
of education only?
Sir John Lubbock has watched the
life of the ants. He says that he never
saw an ant permit one of its own spe-
cies to meet with a mishap without as
sisting it, and that wounded ants are
carefully taken home to the anthill.
When the fighting ants attack n conf
mon enemy it is only reasonable to
suppose that a sense of duty leads them
to forget danger. 1t is very proba BILE
that the sense of responsibility is more
developed in animals that live in large
communities than in those which live
in pairs or singly. 1t is difficult for us
to determine the conception of right
and wrong among the animals because
we have as yet no means of commune
eating with them. We are satisfied if
we can secure their obedience by sight;
the master seldom learns the language
of the slave.
But the fact that we are unable to
arrive at just comprehension of the
moral state of the animal world does
not prove that the animals are entirely
lacking in what we are pleased to call
intellectual qualities. Perhaps some
of our great economical problems defy
a satisfactory solution because we fancy
ourselves SO high above the rest of the
creatures. Perhaps we are unable to
comprehend the harmony of the uni
verse because we coolly rely upon our
own conclusions, and refuse to study it
in all its branches.-La Espana Moder-