Some of the lower animals weep. The deer, for
instance, has been observed to shed tears in the extremity of terror,
and the hard-pressed hare cries like an ill-regulated child; but not
one of them indicates any emotion analogous to the laughter of Man,
excepting Dog. True it is, that we hear of a "horse-laugh." There is a
beast, too, called the "laughing hyena," and a dismal beast he is.
Among the feathered tribes there flourishes an individual named the
"laughing falcon." From inanimate creation the poet has evoked for us
"Minni Haha," or the "laughing water"; and the expression, "it would
make a cat laugh," is frequently made use of in reference to anything
very ridiculous. But in every one of these cases of so-called laughing
things, the sound only of the laughter is there,--the sentiment is
wanting. Not so with Dog, who, when the spirit of fun moves him, smiles
beamingly with his eyes, giggles manifestly with his chops, or laughs
uproariously with his tail, according as the occasion demands.
Yet, with all his wonderful gifts of intellectual ability, we cannot
concede to Dog the possession of the supereminent faculty called
reason,--the faculty which, as an eminent writer--Tupper, I
think--remarks, places Man immeasurably above all the other animals
stationed so much lower down, and by virtue of which he is lord and
master of them all, leading Behemoth over the land with a ring in his
nose, and towing Leviathan across the waters with a harpoon in his
ribs.
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