Animal Farm | Page 2

would not be trodden
on. Clover made a sort of wall round them with her great foreleg, and the ducklings nestled down inside it
and promptly fell asleep. At the last moment Mollie, the foolish, pretty white mare who drew Mr. Jones's
trap, came mincing daintily in, chewing at a lump of sugar. She took a place near the front and began flirting
her white mane, hoping to draw attention to the red ribbons it was plaited with. Last of all came the cat, who
looked round, as usual, for the warmest place, and finally squeezed herself in between Boxer and Clover;
there she purred contentedly throughout Major's speech without listening to a word of what he was saying.
All the animals were now present except Moses, the tame raven, who slept on a perch behind the back door.
When Major saw that they had all made themselves comfortable and were waiting attentively, he cleared his
throat and began:
"Comrades, you have heard already about the strange dream that I had last night. But I will come to the
dream later. I have something else to say first. I do not think, comrades, that I shall be with you for many
months longer, and before I die, I feel it my duty to pass on to you such wisdom as I have acquired. I have
had a long life, I have had much time for thought as I lay alone in my stall, and I think I may say that I
understand the nature of life on this earth as well as any animal now living. It is about this that I wish to
speak to you.
"Now, comrades, what is the nature of this life of ours? Let us face it: our lives are miserable, laborious, and
short. We are born, we are given just so much food as will keep the breath in our bodies, and those of us who
are capable of it are forced to work to the last atom of our strength; and the very instant that our usefulness
has come to an end we are slaughtered with hideous cruelty. No animal in England knows the meaning of
happiness or leisure after he is a year old. No animal in England is free. The life of an animal is misery and
slavery: that is the plain truth.
"But is this simply part of the order of nature? Is it because this land of ours is so poor that it cannot afford a
decent life to those who dwell upon it? No, comrades, a thousand times no! The soil of England is fertile, its
climate is good, it is capable of affording food in abundance to an enormously greater number of animals than
now inhabit it. This single farm of ours would support a dozen horses, twenty cows, hundreds of sheep-and
all of them living in a comfort and a dignity that are now almost beyond our imagining. Why then do we
continue in this miserable condition? Because nearly the whole of the produce of our labour is stolen from us
by human beings. There, comrades, is the answer to all our problems. It is summed up in a single word-Man.
Man is the only real enemy we have. Remove Man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and
overwork is abolished for ever.
"Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is
too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals. He
sets them to work, he gives back to them the bare minimum that will prevent them from starving, and the rest
he keeps for himself. Our labour tills the soil, our dung fertilises it, and yet there is not one of