Civilisation : Its Cause and Cure 



will eat fern-roots in winter when snow covers 

 the ground, but the grouse " don't eat fern-roots," 

 and die in consequence. A wolf of an inquiring 

 turn of mind would probably find strawberries 

 and peas as good food as a dog does, but it is 

 practically certain that any ordinary member of the 

 genus would perish in a garden full of the same 

 if deprived of his customary bones. 



All this seems to indicate what an immensely 

 important part mere custom plays in the life of 

 men and animals. The main part of the power 

 which man acquires over the animals depends 

 upon his establishing habits in them which, once 

 established, they never think of violating : and 

 the almost insuperable nature of this force in animals 

 throws back light on the part it plays in human 

 life. 



Of course, I am not contending in the above 

 remarks upon food that there is no physiological 

 difference between a dog and a sheep in the matter 

 of their digestive organs, and that the one is not 

 by the nature of its body more fitted for one kind 

 of food than the other ; but rather that we should 

 not neglect the importance of mere habit in such 

 matters. Custom changed first ; the change of 

 physiological structure followed slowly after. 

 What happened was probably something like 

 this. Some time in the far back past a group of 

 animals, driven perhaps by necessity, took to 

 hunting in packs in the woods ; it developed a 

 modified physical structure in consequence, and 

 special habits which in the course of time became 



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