TOOTH AND CLAW 



their natural enemies, and has endowed them with 

 means to escape them; then she has equipped these 

 enemies with weapons and instincts to defeat this 

 (her own) purpose. She plays one hand against an- 

 other. Wild life is divided into two warring camps, 

 and, as in our own wars, new devices for defense on 

 the one hand are met with new devices of attack on 

 the other. The little night rodents have big and 

 sharp eyes, but the owl that preys upon them has 

 big and sharp eyes also, and his flight is as silent as 

 a shadow. You see, Nature is impartial; she has the 

 good of all creatures at heart. If it is good for the 

 hawk to eat the bird, it is good for the bird to be 

 equipped with swift wings and sharp eyes to evade 

 the hawk. A little more advantage on either side 

 and the game would be blocked — the birds would 

 fail or the hawks would starve. As it is, "the race is 

 to the swift and the battle to the strong." Nature 

 keeps the balance. Action and reaction are equal. 

 The skunk and the porcupine have little or no fear; 

 neither have they much wit. Their weapons of de- 

 fense are nearly always ready, and that of the por- 

 cupine acts automatically; that of the skunk is a 

 little more deliberate and inflicts less pain, but gives 

 great discomfort and discomfiture. 



Nature keeps one form in check with another 

 form, and thus, like a wise capitalist, distributes her 

 investments so that the income is constant. If she 

 put her funds all in mice and birds, the cats and 



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