re delights in these little
equivocations; thus, we have false suns, false rainbows, false prophets,
false vision, and even false philosophy. There are entire races of both
our species, too, as the Congo and the Esquimaux, for yours, and
baboons and the common monkeys, that inhabit various parts of the world
possessed by the human species, for ours, which are mere shadows of the
forms and qualities that properly distinguish the animal in its state of
protection."

"How, sir! are you not, then, of the same family as all the other
monkeys that we see hopping and skipping about the streets?"

"No more, sir, than you are of the same family as the flat-nosed,
thick-lipped, low-browed, ink-skinned negro, or the squalid,
passionless, brutalized Esquimaux. I have said that nature delights in
vagaries; and all these are no more than some of her mystifications.
Of this class is the elephant, who, while verging nearest to pure
materialism, makes a deceptive parade of the quality he is fast losing.
Instances of this species of playing trumps, if I may so express it, are
common in all classes of beings. How often, for instance, do men, just
as they are about to fail, make a parade of wealth, women seem obdurate
an hour before they capitulate, and diplomatists call Heaven to be a
witness of their resolutions to the contrary, the day before they
sign and seal! In the case of the elephant, however, there is a slight
exception to the general rule, which is founded on an extraordinary
struggle between mind and matter, the former making an effort that is
unusual, and which may be said to form an exception to the ordinary
warfare between these two principles, as it is commonly conducted in the
retrogressive class of animals. The most infallible sign of the triumph
of mind over matter, is in the development of the tail--"

"King!"

"Of the tail, Dr. Reasono?"

"By all means, sir--that seat of reason, the tail! Pray, Sir John,
what other portion of our frames did you imagine was indicative of
intellect?"

"Among men, Dr. Reasono, it is commonly thought the head is the more
honorable member, and, of late, we have made analytical maps of this
part of our physical formation, by which it is pretended to know the
breadth and length of a moral quality, no less than its boundaries."

"You have made the best use of your materials, such as they were, and
I dare say the map in question, all things considered, is a very clever
performance. But