ABSTRACT
If you want to understand why some people are liked and others are disliked, you will do well to start with the simpler question of people’s liking for animals. Why do some people like cats while others like dogs? Why do some people like almost all animals while others like hardly any? I do not profess to know the answers to these questions, but I think two elements enter into the affection that human beings often feel for animals. Some animals are aesthetically delightful, and some in various ways heighten our self-esteem. The affection that springs from aesthetic delight needs no further analysis, but the affection that springs from heightened self-esteem is more subtle. The keeper in charge of the hippopotamus at the zoo is devoted to that beast although no one can say that it is beautiful. I think he is fond of the beast because the beast is fond of him and because, in spite of its enormous bulk, it obeys him. To be loved by a hippopotamus is flattering, and to have him obey you makes you feel yourself a veritable Napoleon. For both these reasons the keeper feels happy in the company of the ungainly monster, and, feeling happy in its presence, he likes it without clear consciousness of the cause.
