You will read the satirical essay “The Lowest Animal” by Mark Twain and write an essay in rebuttal of Mark Twain’s “The Lowest Animal”. In this essay you must defend the human race as civilized, empathetic, caring beings.
You have one hour and thirty minutes. That allows 30-45 minutes to read the essay and 45 min-1 hour to formulate your thoughts and write 400 words. It is an easy and entertaining read. Be confident, calm down, read this and write. IF….and ONLY IF….you are working (aka not talking, googling, etc…) I will extend this 30 minutes into tomorrow’s class if you need time to finish. When you finish today, email me your work on the Google account. Directions are at the bottom of the essay.
“The Lowest Animal”
By: Mark Twain
I have been studying the traits and dispositions of the “lower animals” (so-called), and contrasting them with the traits and dispositions of man. I find the result humiliating to me. For it obliges me to renounce my allegiance to the Darwinian theory of the Ascent of Man from the Lower Animals; since it now seems plain to me that the theory ought to be vacated in favor of a new and truer one, this new and truer one to be named the Descent of Man from the Higher Animals.
In proceeding toward this unpleasant conclusion I have not guessed or speculated or conjectured, but have used what is commonly called the scientific method. That is to say, I have subjected every postulate that presented itself to the crucial test of actual experiment, and have adopted it or rejected it according to the result. Thus I verified and established each step of my course in its turn before advancing to the next. These experiments were made in the London Zoological Gardens, and covered many months of painstaking and fatiguing work.
Before particularizing any of the experiments, I wish to state one or two things, which seem to more properly belong in this place than further along. This, in the interest of