lso for me kinship, with every kind of life around
me, and some friendly association with my fellow-men. The creatures we
call dumb have a sure way of talking to us, if we will overcome their
shyness and give them a chance. Moreover their habits, their method of
life, their thoughts, are in themselves profoundly interesting. I
seemed to have discovered a new universe when I first took to
bee-culture. The geometry of the heavens is not more astonishing than
the geometry of the beehive, nor is the architecture of the finest city
built by man more intricate and masterly. Here, as in all things, we
are deceived by bulk, counting a thing great merely because it is big;
but if it come to deducing an Invisible Mind in the universe from the
things that are visible, I would as soon base my argument on what goes
on in a bee's brain, as on the harmonies of law manifested in the solar
system. I believe we greatly err in underrating other forms of life
than our own. The Hindu, who acknowledges a mystic sacredness in all
forms of life, comes nearer the truth. Life for life, judged by
proportion, plan, symmetry, delicacy of design and beauty of
adjustment, man is a creature not a whit more wonderful than many forms
of life which he crushes with a careless foot. The creature we call
dumb is not dumb to its mates, and it is very likely our human modes of
communication appear as absurd to the dog or horse as theirs do to us.
We know what we think of the so-called dumb creatures; it might be a
humbling surprise if we could know what the dumb creature thinks of us.
The satire would not be upon one side, be sure of it.

To the townsman the simple dwellers on the soil seem almost as
incapable of intercourse as the creatures of the field and pasture.
Because they do not know the kind of things the townsman knows, they
are supposed to know nothing. I have already said enough to show how
absurd and insolent is this assumption. My neighbours were few, and
simple-minded; but they possessed many kinds of skill necessary to
their life, they had wisdom and virtue, and upon the whole a kind of
fundamental dignity of nature. They were as shy as woodland creatures
to a stranger's voice; they were highly sensitive to the mere shadow of
a slight, and both suspicious and resentful of patronage; but they met
trust with trust, and where they gave their trust they gave their full
loyalty of friendship. In my youth, as I have said elsewhere, I oft