, had their right of personal
combat been questioned. The simian submits with odd readiness to the
loss of this privilege. What outrages him is to make him stop wagging
his tongue. He becomes most excited and passionate about the right of
free speech, even going so far in his emotion as to declare it is
sacred.

He looks upon other creatures pityingly because they are dumb. If one
of his own children is born dumb, he counts it a tragedy. Even that
mere hesitation in speech, known as stammering, he deems a misfortune.

So precious to a simian is the privilege of making sounds with his
tongue, that when he wishes to punish severely those men he calls
criminals, he forbids them to chatter, and forces them by threats to be
silent. It is felt that this punishment is entirely too cruel however,
and that even the worst offenders should be allowed to talk part of
each day.

Whatever a simian does, there must always be some talking about it. He
can't even make peace without a kind of chatter called a peace
conference. Super-cats would not have had to "make" peace: they would
have just walked off and stopped fighting.

* * * * *

In a world of super-cat-men, I suppose there would have been fewer
sailors; and people would have cared less for seaside resorts, or for
swimming. Cats hate getting wet, so men descended from them might have
hated it. They would have felt that even going in wading was a sign of
great hardihood, and only the most daring young fellows, showing off,
would have done it.

Among them there would have been no anti-vivisection societies:

No Young Cats Christian Associations or Red Cross work:

No vegetarians:

No early closing laws:

Much more hunting and trapping:

No riding to hounds; that's pure simian. Just think how it would have
entranced the old-time monkeys to foresee such a game! A game where
they'd all prance off on captured horses, tearing pell-mell through the
woods in gay red coats, attended by yelping packs of servant-dogs. It
is excellent sport--but how cats would scorn to hunt in that way!

They would not have knighted explorers--they would have all been
explorers.

* * * * *

Imagine that you are strolling through a super-cat city at night. Over
yonder is the business quarter, its evening shops blazing with jewels.
The great stock-yards lie to the east where you hear those sad sounds:
that low m