EDUCATION. 



269 



individual actions, actions the most plainly reasoned over and calcu- 

 lated upon, I am to conclude there is nothing but a lack of reason, a 

 mechanism, an "automatism," a species of pendulum which sports 

 with life and thought ? 



Note that our observations were made on a captive, who worked 

 in fatal and })redetermined conditions of dwelling-place, nourishment, 

 kc. But how, if her action had been more evidently chosen, willed, 

 ajid meditated ; if all this had transpired in the freedom of the forests, 

 or she had had cause to disquiet herself about many other circum- 

 stances which captivity enabled her to ignore ? I am thinking 

 especially of the anxiety for security, which, for the bird in savage 

 life, is the foremost of all cares, and which more than anything else 

 exercises and develops her free genius. 



This first initiation into life, of which I have just given an 

 example, is followed by what I shall call the professional education ; 

 every bird has a vocation. 



This education is more or less arduous, according to the medium 

 and the circumstances in which each species is placed. That of 

 fishing, for instance, is simple enough for the penguin, which, in her 



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clumsiness, finds it difficult to conduct her brood to the sea ; its great 

 nurse attends the little one, and offers it the food all ready ; it 



