CHAPTER IX 



THE THEORY OF PARASITISM 



THE Melecta does what she can with the 

 gifts at her disposal. I should leave it 

 at that, if I had not to take into considera- 

 tion a grave charge brought against her. She 

 is accused of having lost, for want of use and 

 through laziness, the workman's tools with 

 which, so we are told, she was originally en- 

 dowed. Finding it to her advantage to do 

 nothing, bringing up her family free of ex- 

 pense, to the detriment of others, she is al- 

 leged to have gradually inspired her race with 

 an abhorrence for work. The harvesting- 

 tools, less and less often employed, dwindled 

 and as organs having no function; the species 

 changed into a different one; and finally idle- 

 ness turned the honest worker of the outset 

 into a parasite. This brings us to a very 

 simple and seductive theory of parasitism, 

 worthy to be discussed with all respect. Let 

 us set it forth. 



Some mother, nearing the end of her la- 

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