The Theory of Parasitism 



resin partitions in the spiral stairway of a 

 dead Snail. Such was the trade driven by her 

 ancestors. 



Really! So, to avoid slow and painful 

 work, to achieve an easy life, to give herself 

 the leisure favourable to the settlement of her 

 family, the erstwhile cotton-weaver or col- 

 lector of resin-drops took to gnawing hard- 

 ened cement 1 She who once sipped the nec- 

 tar of flowers made up her mind to chew con- 

 crete I Why, the poor wretch toils at her filing 

 like a galley-slave! She spends more time 

 in ripping up a cell than it would take her to 

 make a cotton wallet and fill it with food. 

 If she really meant to progress, to do better 

 in her own interest and that of her family, 

 by abandoning the delicate occupations of 

 the old days, we must confess that she has 

 made a strange mistake. The mistake would 

 be no greater if fingers accustomed to fancy 

 weaving were to lay aside velvet and silk and 

 proceed to handle the quarryman's blocks or 

 to break stones on the roadside. 



No, the animal does not commit the folly 



of voluntarily embittering its lot; it does not, 



in obedience to the promptings of idleness, 



give up one condition to embrace another and 



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