PHILOSOPHY OF DR. ERASMUS DARWIN. 205 



" So flies burn themselves in candles, deceived like 

 mankind by the misapplication of their knowledge." 



Again : 



" An ingenious philosopher has lately denied that 

 animals can enter into contracts, and thinks this 

 an essential difference between them and the human 

 creature: but does not daily observation convince us 

 that they form contracts of friendship with each other 

 and with mankind ? When puppies and kittens play 

 together is there not a tacit contract that they will not 

 hurt each other ? And does not your favourite dog 

 expect you should give him his daily food for his 

 services and attention to you? And thus barters his 

 love for your protection ? In the same manner that all 

 contracts are made among men that do not understand 

 each other's arbitrary language." * 



One more extract from a chapter full of excellent 

 passages must suffice. 



" One circumstance I shall relate which fell under 

 my own eye, and showed the power of reason in a wasp, 

 as it is exercised among men. A wasp on a gravel 

 walk had caught a fly nearly as large as himself; 

 kneeling on the ground, I observed him separate the 

 tail and the head from the body part, to which the 

 wings were attached. He then took the body part in his 

 paws, and rose about two feet from the ground with it ; 

 but a gentle breeze wafting the wings of the fly turned 

 him round in the air, and he settled again with his prey 

 upon the gravel. I then distinctly observed him cut 

 off with his mouth first one of the wings and then the 



* 'Zoonomia,' p. 171. 



