THE PROBLEM OF DOMESTICATION 



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seek accessions of strength by experiments in domestication. 

 Each of these winnings from the wilderness represented by 

 our domesticated animals or plants has been painfully and 

 laboriously gained. The men who did the tasks were not 

 creatures of the day, but foresightful beyond the average of 

 mortals. 



In a large way the work of domestication represents one 

 of the modes of action of that sympathetic motive which 

 more than any other has been the basis of the highest 

 development of mankind. Ordinary men of the low grade 

 are content to slay, or otherwise rudely gain what value they 

 find in the wild creatures. Only, the higher grades of men 

 perceive much of the charm in the inhabitants of the wilder- 

 ness, or desire to win them to their homes. If our conquests 

 from the wilds were limited to the grossly profitable life 

 alone, we might say that interest only had determined the 

 work of subjugation ; but as soon as men escape from their 

 primitive state, even while in their general motives they are 

 still essentially barbarians, they cultivate flowers and derive 

 a keen pleasure from their company. They domesticate 

 birds which are valuable only for the pleasures which their 

 presence lends to human abodes. This action clearly shows $ 

 that the element of sympathy, that love for the other life 

 which in any way fixes the attention, has had much to do 

 with this work of bringing other beings into association 

 with our own lives. 



Not only is the motive which has led our race to such 

 extensive conquests over the wild nature in itself sympa- 

 thetic, but the process of winning these creatures from the 

 wilderness has served effectively to extend and amplify this 

 same impulse. One of the best features of agricultural life 



