310 DAIIWINIANISM. 



inside. This, however, must h'ere be plain to themselves, 

 that they cannot see into everything from the outside. 

 When we put hand into hand on a promise or a bargain, 

 for example, what ancestor of ours among the brutes 

 shall we summon in proof of the inheritance of a custom, 

 or of its origin in mere animality and sense ? May not 

 there be extended application of this question, too ? 

 and may we not hope that a feeling of the commonness 

 and slmllowness of the outside position will abide ? 



Is it quite certain that the dominant spirit which we 

 see everywhere around us, in the new world as in the 

 old, in religion as in politics, in philosophy as in current 

 intelligence, etc., is not to be traced to the abettors of the 

 mere outside, the Mills, the Grotes, the Buckles, ay, and 

 the Darwins, to whom alone we have listened during 

 these last forty, fifty, or less or more years ? 



We turn now to the main interest the special bear- 

 ing of the emotions on the principle of natural selection. 

 Only, first of all, as medium of transition here, and. at 

 the same time, as excellently illustrative of Mr. Darwin's 

 physical reasoning, we shall venture to call attention for 

 a moment to what (p. 93 seq.) concerns the porcupine. 



Porcupines, we are told, " rattle their quills and vibrate 

 their tails when angered." These rattling quills, it 

 appears, are only on the tail. Short, hollow, thin, open, 

 supported on a slender footstalk each, they strike against 

 each other and rattle when the tail is shaken. Mr. 

 Darwin says further here : " We can, I think, understand 

 why porcupines have been provided with this special 

 sound-producing instrument ; they are nocturnal animals, 

 and if they scented or heard a prowling beast of prey, 

 it would be a great advantage to them in the dark to 

 give warning to their enemy what they were, and that 

 they were furnished with dangerous spines ; they would 

 thus escape being attacked." It is curious how Mr. 







