The Sermon With a Second Performer

Transcript

A priest was delivering his sermon when his congregation began to laugh. He rebuked them. They laughed still more. What he could not see was the performer just above his head. In this story from A Hundred Anecdotes of Animals, published in nineteen hundred and one, the priest had raised an ape that liked to follow him everywhere. Before church, he usually shut it in his room. This time it escaped. The animal climbed onto the sounding-board above the pulpit and waited for the sermon to begin. Then it leaned over the edge and copied the preacher’s gestures. The more earnestly the priest protested, the more vigorously he moved. Above him, the ape supplied an exact reply. The congregation could no longer contain itself. At last a friend stepped forward and pointed out the cause. Now even the priest struggled to keep a straight face as he ordered the animal taken away. His audience had been paying attention after all. There had simply been two performances to watch.