But, when I slip my arms
into the sleeves of my heavy great-coat, one would think that
they were opening the gates of the most dazzling paradise. For
this implies the car, the obvious, indubitable motor-car, in
other words, the radiant summit of the most superlative delight.
And delirious barks, inordinate bounds, riotous, embarrassing
demonstrations of affection greet a happiness which, for all
that, is but an immaterial idea, built up of artless memories and
ingenuous hopes.
23
I mention these matters only because they are quite ordinary and
because there is nobody who has not made a thousand similar
observations. As a rule, we do not notice that these humble
manifestations represent sentiments, associations of ideas,
inferences, deductions, an absolute and altogether human mental
effort. They lack only speech; but speech is merely a mechanical
accident which reveals the operations of thought more clearly to
us. We are amazed that Mohammed or Zarif should recognize the
picture of a horse, a donkey, a hat, or a man on horseback, or
that they should spontaneously report to their master the little
events that happen in the stable; but it is certain that our own
dog is incessantly performing a similar work and that his eyes,
if we could read them, would tell us a great deal more. The
primary miracle of Elberfeld is that the stallions should have
been given the means of expressing what they think and feel.
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