And now comes the query: "What is man?" He has always been more or less
at a loss for some striking and succinct statement of his peculiar
characteristics--of the mark that separates him from other animals.
Diogenes Laertius says that Plato having defined man to be a two-legged
animal without feathers, he (Diogenes) plucked a cock, and, bringing him
into the school, said "Here is Plato's man." From this joke there was
added to the definition "With broad flat nails." Even this definition is
just as faulty, as it does not exclude many species of the monkey. Again
it was thought that man was the only being who laughs. Says Addison,
poetically: "Man is the merriest species of the creation; all above and
below him are serious." But scientists refuse to accept this distinction
as accurate. "Man is an animal
THAT COOKS HIS VICTUALS,"
says Burke. "So does the buzzard" (in the sun) say the learned men. "Man
uses tools," says another. "So does the beaver--the ourang-outang hurls
stones, and fights with clubs," say the scientists. Finally, says Adam
Smith, in his "Wealth of Nations:" "Man is an animal that makes
bargains; no other animal does this--one dog does not change a bone with
another.
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