A vegetable is a meaner thing than an animal, and one great
sign of its being meaner is, that vegetables cannot do each other any
good--cannot help each other--cannot even hurt each other, except in
a mere mechanical way, by overgrowing each other or robbing each
other's roots; but what would it matter to a tree if all the other
trees in the world were to die? So with wild animals. What matters
it to a bird or a beast, whether other birds and beasts are ill off
or well off, wise or stupid? Each one takes care of itself--each one
shifts for itself. But you will say "Bees help each other and depend
upon each other for life and death." True, and for that very reason
we look upon bees as being more wise and more wonderful than almost
any animals, just because they are so much like us human beings in
depending on each other. You will say again, that among dogs, a
riotous hound will lead a whole pack wrong--a staunch and well-broken
hound will keep a whole pack right; and that dogs do depend upon each
other in very wonderful ways. Most true, but that only proves more
completely what I want to get at. It is the TAME dog, which man has
taken and broken in, and made to partake more or less of man's wisdom
and cunning, who depends on his fellow-dogs.
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