"
He watched her draw her dressing gown closer about her, as though the
cold bit more keenly then.
She said simply: "Yes, I saw."
"Don't you see that he is simply more in tune with the animal world? And
it's really no more reasonable to expect Black Bart to remember you than
it is to expect Dan Barry to remember you? It's quite plain. When you go
back to the beginning man was simply an animal, without the higher
senses, as we call them. He was simply a brute, living in trees or in
caves. Afterwards he grew into the thing we all know. But why not
imagine a throw-back into the earlier instincts? Why not imagine the
creature devoid of the impulses of mind, the thing which we call man,
and see the splendid animal? You saw in Dan Barry simply a biological
sport--the freak--the thing which retraces the biological progress and
comes close to the primitive. But of course you could not realise this.
He seemed a man, and you accepted him as a man. In reality he was no
more a man than Black Bart is a man. He had the face and form of a man,
but his instincts were as old as the ages. The animal world obeys him.
Satan neighs in answer to his whistle. The wolf-dog licks his hand at
the point of death. There is the profound difference, always. You try to
reconcile him with other men; you give him the attributes of other men.
Open your eyes; see the truth: that he is no more akin to man than Black
Bart is like a man.
Pages:
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204