V 



278 THE EVOLUTION OF A MOTHER. 



really a sort of a child, and has really a sort of a 

 Mother. The third is the Model Child— the Mammal. 

 In this child, which is only found in the high places of 

 Nature, infancy reaches its last perfection. Housed, 

 protected, sumptuously fed, the luxurious children 

 keep to their Mother's side for months and years, and 

 only quit the parental roof when their filial education 

 is complete. 



On a casual view of the Examiner's Report on these 

 various children of Nature the physiologist, as dis- 

 tinguished from the educationalist, might object that 

 so far from being the subject of congratulation it is a 

 clear case for censure. If early Nature could turn out 

 ready-made animals in a single hour, is it not a retro- 

 grade move to have to take so long about it later on ? 

 When one contrasts the free swimming embryo of a 

 Medusa, dashing out into its heroic life the moment it 

 is born, with the helpless kitten or the sightless pup, 

 is it unfair to ask if Nature has not lost the trick of 

 making lusty lives ? Is she not trying the new exper- 

 iment at the risk of blundering the old one, and why 

 cannot she continue the earlier and more brilliant 

 device of making her children knight-errants from the 

 first ? Because brilliance is not her object. Her ob- 

 ject is ethical as well as physiological ; and though 

 when we look below the surface a purely physiological 

 explanation of the riddle will appear, the ethical gain 

 is not less clear. By curbing them she is educating 

 them, taming them, rescuing them from a wild and 

 lawless life. These roving embryos are mere bandits ; 

 their nature and habits must be changed ; not a 

 sterner race but a gentler race must be born. New 

 words must come into the world — Home, Love, 



