The Tachytes 



cross a foot-bridge in order to reach the 

 warehouse are absolutely prevented from 

 doing so when the bridge is interrupted by a 

 slight gap. They would only need a few 

 grains of sand to fill the void and restore 

 the causeway. They do not for a moment 

 dream of it, plucky navvies though they be, 

 capable of raising miniature mountains of 

 excavated soil. We can get them to give 

 us an enormous cone of earth, an instinctive 

 piece of work, but we shall never obtain the 

 juxtaposition of three grains of sand, a rea- 

 soned piece of work. The Ant does not 

 reason, any more than the Tachytes. 



If you bring up a tame Fox and set his 

 platter of food before him, this creature of 

 a thousand tricks confines himself to tugging 

 with all his might at the leash which keeps 

 him a step or two from his dinner. He pulls 

 as the Tachytes pulls, exhausts himself in 

 futile efforts and then Hes down, with his 

 little eyes leering fixedly at the dish. Why 

 does he not turn round? This would in- 

 crease his radius; and he could reach then 

 the food with his hind-foot and pull it to- 

 wards him. The idea never occurs to him. 

 Yet another animal deprived of reason. 



Friend Bull, my Dog, is no better-en- 

 dowed, despite his quality as a candidate for 

 149 



