Burroughs inhabits in New York. Mr. Burroughs's method
of argument is beautiful. It reminds one of the man whose
pronunciation was vile, but who said: "Damn the dictionary; ain't I
here?"
And now we come to the mental processes of Mr. Burroughs--to the
psychology of the ego, if you please. Mr. Burroughs has troubles of
his own with the dictionary. He violates language from the
standpoint both of logic and science. Language is a tool, and
definitions embodied in language should agree with the facts and
history of life. But Mr. Burroughs's definitions do not so agree.
This, in turn, is not the fault of his education, but of his ego. To
him, despite his well-exploited and patronizing devotion to them, the
lower animals are disgustingly low. To him, affinity and kinship
with the other animals is a repugnant thing. He will have none of
it. He is too glorious a personality not to have between him and the
other animals a vast and impassable gulf. The cause of Mr.
Burroughs's mediaeval view of the other animals is to be found, not
in his knowledge of those other animals, but in the suggestion of his
self-exalted ego.
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