“No Sir, I don’t see!” cried the now angry Professor with much warmth. “And allow me to add, Dr. Tourniquet—allow me to add, I say——”
“The wine, if you please,” cried Oriel Porphyry, who, with the captain, had enjoyed the discussion till he thought it necessary to interfere.
“Ay, the wine, Professor Fortyfolios,” repeated the doctor, with his usual good humour. “It is the most admirable addition to your excellent arguments you could have conceived; and, therefore, as a mark of sincere respect for your superior learning, allow me to propose your health, don’t you see.”
The professor recovered his dignity immediately. “I agree completely,” said he, after having properly acknowledged the compliment he had received, “I agree completely with the opinion of my accomplished friend, as to the great degree of pain produced by warfare, and——”
“Froth and moonshine!” exclaimed the captain, interrupting him. “Why we must all die some day or other, and it is quite as agreeable to strike your colours to a bullet or a sword thrust, as to old age or the gout. In my opinion, a fellow who lives past his strength, is like a ship that isn’t sea-worthy,—he ought to be destroyed as useless. As for fighting being unnatural, it’s the most natural thing in nature. In the sea, the big fish destroy the little fish; in the air, the great birds prey upon the smaller ones; and on the land, the more powerful animals devour those of less strength. Every thing has to fight for its existence, and so does man.”
“But man alone preys upon his own species,” remarked the professor.
“You’re out of your reckoning there, most decidedly, Mister Professor,” replied Captain Compass hastily: “cocks, quails, pheasants, bulls, deer, dogs, and cats fight each other, as long as they’ve got a leg to stand upon; and the sow devours her own farrow, and the rabbit her own litter, without any sort of compunction.”
“There can at least be no apology for the ferocity with which man in a state of civilisation, pursues his fellow-creatures to the death, don’t you see,” said the doctor.
“Ferocity!” exclaimed the captain fiercely. “Who are so ferocious as philosophers?”