More Hunting Wasps 



but by the nature of the work accomplished. 

 The monumental roasting-jack of a wag- 

 goners' inn and a Breguet ^ chronometer 

 both have trains of cogwheels geared in al- 

 most a similar fashion. Are we to class the 

 two mechanisms together? Shall we forget 

 that the one turns a shoulder of mutton be- 

 fore the hearth, while the other divides time 

 into seconds? 



In the same way, the organic scaffolding 

 is dominated from on high by the aptitudes 

 of the animal, especially that superior char- 

 acteristic, the psychical aptitudes. That the 

 Chimpanzee and the hideous Gorilla possess 

 close resemblances of structure to our own is 

 obvious. But let us for a moment consider 

 their aptitudes. What differences, what a 

 dividing gulf! Without exalting ourselves 

 as high as the famous reed of which Pascal ^ 

 speaks, that reed which, in its weakness, by 

 the mere fact that it knows itself to be 

 crushed, is superior to the world that crushes 

 it, we may at least ask to be shown, some- 

 where, an animal making an Implement, 

 which will multiply Its skill and its strength, 



1 Louis Breguet (1803-1883), a famous Parisian watch- 

 maker and physicist. — Translator's Note. 



^Blaise Pascal (1623-1662). The allusion is to a pass- 

 age in the philospher's Pensees. Pascal describes man 

 as a reed, the weakest thing in nature, but " a thinking 

 reed." — Translator's Note. 



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