The Atherstone, Nuneaton, and Warwickshire Times. — 1886-08-07 (Atherstone, Warwickshire, England)

HAPPINESS.  Whether animals are happy is a question debated by Mr. Briggs Carlill in the Ninemerged Coteau. The question is one which, properly speaking, cannot arise at all. We might as well discuss, to um Mr. Mill's tration. whether Humpty Dumpty is or is not Abracidabra. Happiness, in the sense underatood by philosophers, is a state peeMiar to men, only perhaps they also have to do without it. Pessimists have argued that !unpin.sa does not and cannot exist at all ; at most, people may be jolly, not happy. Even Aristotle admits that the most fortunate of as cannot be happy, "except as men may—that is, in a very limited fashion. Bat Aristotle and other philosophers so define happiness ai expressly to exclude animals. It is peculiar to beings with that higher and reflective consciousness which we may presume that animals do not posseaa. We eon hardly call even a child happy, because it is hanUy conscious of its happiness. In the same way, we might argue, animals can at best he comfortable, or free from pain, or in enjoyment of pleasure, all of which are blessed conditions, bat remote from that rounded consciousness of nnimpeded existence which may IP a merely ideal state, but which alone is happiness properly so called. No animal, we may he certain, can look back and my to itself. "Alt, those were happy days when I WAS a kitten," or" grtteu I was in love," or "when I was bringingup my first litter." Animals are incapable of such reflection, of such distirotiona, and therefore can never, ins philosophic sense, deserve to be styled "happy." Of MUM there is a sense in which aniumls are happy, the sense indicated in the proverbial expression "no happy as an idiot," a sense which Aristotle would have rejected. Al an argument to prove that animals are not Unhappy, Mr. Briggs Carlin says, "there is not even a suggestion of suicide as a &Mgt "among brutes." But whoever heard of a man with whom suicide gra, a habit I C'est a prendre on d fusser. You commit suicide or you leave it alone, though of course some weak-minded people, like the poet Cowper, are always nibbling at suicide. Yet, even taking Cowper's ease, we cannot say that suicide was a habit with a man who, in point of fact, never was felt, ele se, even once. So of animals ; there are pretty well authenticated anecdotes of animals who died by their own—one cannot say by their own hands, but by their own act and deed. Now if one case only is true, it is enough to prove that an animal is capable of unhappiness, and if of unhappiness, then, by parity of reasoning, of happiness. Certainly a cat deprived of its kittens, or a she-b, an robbed of her whelps, seems to show ..1.4 much misery as a dog, when his master comes home, displays delight. But misery and delight both lack that element of reflective consciousness which is the skiVernaut of happiness, properly to called. Thu. we return, at always happens in metaphysics, to a kind of war of words. and beating of the air. Mr. Briggs Caclill concludes that the "local ganglionic pleasures" are as jolly in the experience of the ening is as in ours. Physical suffering again is leas intense in animals than in men, no, taking bodily pleasures and pains alone, animals bore north the advantage over even a very stupid Man or woman. Probably, as Plato saw, nothing is no happy as an oyster at the bottom of a deep warm bay, if we are to apply the eerie ..hvity'' to unreflective creatures. But clearly we cannot apply it. We can scarcely venture to say that man is happy, or unhappy, much less then can we speak for the lower and more mysterious anissalle.—Daily  Cain. to Felines.— From the now volume ptiblishml by the Italian General ',action of Statistic+, which containst data from 1973 to 1964' the following Incur... are taken respecting morder and manslaughter in the following count, lee. The prOportion of individuals condenne.l in for every 100,000 persons —ln Italy 8.12, Fromm, 1.74, Behriuou 1.78, llernasay 1.11. Great Britain 0.60. Austria 2.24, II unitary 6.09, Spain, 7.93. Tho• Italy. Span. and /long.), have the iable preceilencr in murder. In elfencee against in,raltty Italy shows more laroorably. Tits proportion of persons condemned foe each oHeomnit is M 11.elgioni 13.11 in every 100.000 inhabitant, Germane tills. France it 76, Anstria 9 19. ilungary 6.02. Italy 377. England 1.74. Spain 0.93. 10. many °camping the first place in roaery, the proportion. being I. rountl numbeo.—ilermany 112. Italy 134. Great Britain 147. ?Belgium Pki. Fnuice 112. Hungary 77. .kuatria tlO, Spain 56. Taking all erinice together liermany ia Ilie top of the scale, and Emiland at the bottom. The Yolitine, which ii compilet with care. shows that crime. in Italy have sen.ibly ditninishel else. Peso. rh, total number of condemnation.. haie doeteeried ill the 10 years, front 1473 to 1994. hoot 6%0.11 to 0043, and the proportion for every 10,001 inhabitant. rehired from 05.40 to 20. tl3. . . . . .  A !Ina darer say• :—Wlnle the Engbelt elneet• at tlreee ereat eulfot it, it ow be avoule.l I, y eslett prapt, metes. Mr. 'I. .1. Matte.. c1ue5:1.4,12 Areyle.•t:eet. wrotee : -For tbe retie, St rbeeroafeen end of 140 leep...ten,leet euee Ott I.r theumetene, I titui At. Jeo:be 011 partteoletly an.' au of the lerele•e: member.. tte inedieel meter:on of 0.5 cley 1rer.72Z,;.-677V,7d"1;; Vil.Pll7,°.`al 2.. 2,.. bottle, or by post 24. 91. from the Cheri.. A. (."tepauy, bole rropnaton. 93. Furb.Cd.9, Rand. Loodea.