評論
打印
I was aware that many men who have accumulated more millions of money than they can ever use have shown a rabid hunger for more, and have not scrupled to cheat the ignorant and the helpless out of their poor savings in order to partially appease that appetite. I furnished a hundred different kinds of wild and tame animals the opportunity to accumulate vast stores of food, but none of them would do it. The squirrels and bees and certain birds made accumulations, but stopped when they had gathered a winter's supply, and could not be persuaded to add to it either honestly or by tricks. These experiments convinced me that there is this difference between man and the higher animals; he is avaricious and miserly, they are not.
我意識到，許多人雖然聚斂了不計其數的財富，然而他們仍然渴望更多，并且肆無忌憚地騙取那些無知無助的人那點兒可憐的積蓄，以此來部分地滿足自己的欲望。我向100 種不同的野生動物和家畜提供了儲存大量食物的機會，但是沒有一種動物試圖屯積食物。松鼠、蜜蜂和某些鳥類雖然也進行積累，但當它們積累了足夠過冬的食物后，也就停了下來，無論你直言相勸還是玩弄花招都無法說服它們再多屯積一點兒。這些實驗讓我相信，人和高級動物間的區別：人貪得無厭又愛財如命，這些高級動物卻不是如此。
In the course of my experiments I convinced myself that among the animals man is the only one that harbors insults and injuries, broods over them, waits till a chance offers, then takes revenge. The passion of revenge is unknown to the higher animals.
在實驗中，我確信在所有的動物中，人是唯一將侮辱和傷窖深記于心，耿耿于懷， 伺機報復的動物。強烈的報復欲望在高級動物中是罕見的。
