“
Plinio Corręa de Oliveira (*)
An anti-egalitarian consideration of the universe manifests to us
that it is a veritable court full of unequal nobles. Some are more noble because they have more nobility in their very
being while others are less noble because they have less nobility in their
being.
Someone may ask, "Can you give an example?" I shall give
a simple example: the peacock and the chicken.
Nobility in the peacock is very evident: in the fanning of the
tail, in the admirable handsomeness of its plumage, in the beautiful iridescent
blue-green feathers of its neck. Everything about the peacock is grand except
its head, but this is the small and lively center that gives movement to all
the rest, as much as can befit a being without reason.
Its manner of moving is that of a queen. It walks nobly, calmly,
not alarmed by anything. When it runs, it runs with a certain dignity; when it
stops, it does so without gasping.
On the other hand, the chicken is a misery insofar as nobility
goes. Ridiculous in its way of clucking, ridiculous in its way of running, it
runs as if terror-stricken. The repulsive worms it finds on the ground are
devoured rapaciously; its contentment is a gluttonous contentment.
The hen has just one noble side: It is the maternal love with
which it defends, even at the risk of its own life, each one of its chicks. And
it in respect to this that the very God-Man deigned to compare Himself when He
said, "
True, the hen and the peacock are irrational beings. They have no
intelligence, so they have no nobility in the true sense of the word, but only
analogously.
[TFP Magazine, July-August, 1995]