Pinnix, H. C.

English

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A FLY'S POINT OF VIEW.BY MRS. H. C. PINNIX.*l\/f OTHER, what sort of an animal is that two-legged crea-iVJ. ture ?" asked a youthful fly of the maternal insect. "I noticethat that sort never goes on all-fours."'That, my child, is the most sagacious of all the lower animals.An all-wise Creator seems to have endowed him with instincts nearlyallied to reason, to the end that he may provide for all our wants.But for the biped man, the great race of insects, of which ours—the fly race—is the crown and capital, could not exist. It is a partof the scheme of things that this lowly creature should toil his wholelife long in our service. He contributes incidentally to the main-tenance of the plebeian insect races. The flea, the bedbug, and othermembers of the numerous parasite family, he allows to pastureupon him. But it is for the fly alone that he puts forth his stren-uous efforts—that he toils through summer's heat and winter'scold.""Do you suppose that God made him just for that?""Why, of course my child. I don't like the tone of your ques-tion. It is too skeptical. Of course all the domesticated animalshorses, dogs, cats, men, etc.—were created for our benefit.""They seem to take up a great deal more standing room in theuniverse than we do," suggested the young person."The size counts for nothing, my dear. It is brain—intellectsoul—that constitutes the difference between us and these creatures.""Who knows but that men and women (that is what you callthe females—isn't it?) have minds and souls too?""Why, whoever heard of such a thing?" gasped the mother fly."They exhibit reason," persisted her offspring."Instinct you mean, my dear. You cannot compare their work—their architecture, for instance—with that marvel of constructiveingenuity, the honey comb. The bee, although an inferior creature486 THE OPEN COURT.to Us, still belongs to the great insect family, the only created beingsendowed with reason and intelligence.""But this creature you call man has erected some wonderfulstructures.""None that will bear comparison with the work of the coralpolyp. The island upon which we live was built up by that intelli-gent insect. When he had established the foundations, then mancame and made ready for Us—the end and aim, the perfect flower(to speak in metaphor) of Creative Effort. It is for Us that manerects these enormous edifices you see around you. He was endowedwith instinct to that end. You will appreciate the beautiful designof it when you note in every dwelling house, however large or small,an apartment called the kitchen. My child, that kitchen was builtthat food might be prepared in it for Us. Food is prepared in it,three times a day, for Us. For Us man sows and reaps, and gathersinto barns; for Us he slaughters his nearest kinsman, the hog, andthat nobler animal, the cow, serving up their remains in appetizingdishes to appease our hunger.""How do you know all that—know that God made all thesemen and women just for our benefit—to minister to our w^ants?They are much bigger than we are.""There you go again. My child, I must supervise your readinga little more. Somebody has been putting notions into your head.""I believe that these two-legged animals are just as much theobjects of God's care as we are, and I don't believe that they wereall created just for our benefit either.""I shall have to speak to your father about you. He is a verywise fly and can explain things better than I can.""I hope then that he will be able to explain the yearly delugethat sweeps millions of us out of existence. It recurs with theperiodicity of the equinox (I wonder if there is any connectionbetween them"). The female of these bipeds arms herself with asmall tree—""A broom," corrected the mother fly."A broom then, although it looks like a small tree to me. Shedips this broom or tree into a small ocean of soapsuds—after that,the deluge. Whole generations of us are swept away in the cata-clysm of one house-clean. Wherefore? I say—that is, reasoningfrom your premise, regarding the fly as the objective point of nature'sefforts. I should think that she would be at more trouble to con-serve what she has been at such infinite pains to produce."A fly's point of view. 487"The ways of Providence are past finding out," replied thepious mother fly."I don't believe we are as high and mighty as we think we are,"observed the daughter insect. I cannot believe that all these mag-nificent buildings were constructed just for us to speck. Why shouldI believe it? Who knows? Who has been told by the Great Archi-tect—the eternal Noumenon behind ever-changing phenomena—themeaning of it all? Into whose ear has He whispered the greatsecret? Who knows that a fly is wiser than a man? Who knowsbut that there are higher intelligences yet—beings as far beyond Usas we are beyond the humble creature man? Somewhere amongthe innumerable islands of the illimitable ocean there may be moreGod-like beings than the Fly.""Impossible. The very thought is blasphemy. You take theraison d'etre out of things when you degrade the Fly from hissupreme position—when you make him other than the climax ofcreative effort. The universe is inexplicable otherwise.""These men and women may have more reason than you givethem credit for. They may have souls. They seem to have alanguage.""Not intelligent speech like ours. The horse neighs, the cowlows, the dog barks, and man jabbers. Only flies discourse under-standingly.""How do you know that? Do you suppose a man or a dogunderstands our language? They probably consider it just a buz-zing.""I haven't the patience to argue with you. Go and study yourcatechism and learn what all the flies from time immemorial havetaught and believed in, and never let me hear you again presumeto set up your opinion against the cumulative wisdom of your an-cestors. I very much fear that you are a degenerate fly."

A Fly\u27s Point of View.

https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2268&amp;context=ocj

A Fly\u27s Point of View.

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