344 ~ On National Character. 
being alarmed at the presence of man, and 
untractable, it is attached to his person, and 
submits to his discipline. As a change. of 
disposition, of constitutional feeling is pro- 
duced, how is it effected? Let us illustrate 
the subject by an instance: suppose a pair of 
wild ducks to be the subject of domestication ; 
they are confined to a yard or a pond, and 
habituated to the presence of their owner, by 
whom they are fed and caressed. After a 
length of time they lose part of their wild- 
ness; in this state a nest is formed, and a due 
number of eggs are laid for a brood of young; 
but the mother duck is not permitted to sit 
upon them; they are taken from her and put 
under a most domestic hen ; when the eggs 
are hatched the hen is unceasing in her 
attention, informing the young by tones, well 
understood by them, that they are in safety. 
But notwithstanding this, the wildness. of their 
nature predominates, and they shun the pre- 
sence of man, and if not prevented, as soon 
as they could fly, would take wing and leave 
the place where they had been brought up. 
But we will suppose they do not obtain an 
opportunity to escape, but remain confined to 
the poultry yard; they are evidently wild, but 
yet they are not so much so as the old. ones 
that produced the eggs, from which they were 
