TIME AND CHANGE 



I have never known any of our wild birds to steal 

 the nesting-material of another bird of the same 

 kind, but I have known birds to try to carry off the 

 material belonging to other species. 



But usually the rule of might is the rule of right 

 among the animals. As to most of the other com- 

 mandments, — of coveting, of bearing false wit- 

 ness, of honoring the father and the mother, and so 

 forth, — how can these apply to the animals or have 

 any biological value to them? Parental obedience 

 among them is not a very definite thing. There is 

 neither obedience nor disobedience, because there 

 are no commands. The alarm-cries of the parents 

 are quickly understood by the young, and their ac- 

 tions imitated in the presence of danger, all of 

 which of course has a biological value. 



The instances which Mr. Seton cites of animals 

 fleeing to man for protection from their enemies 

 prove to my mind only how the greater fear drives 

 out the lesser. The hotly pursued animal sees a pos- 

 sible cover in a group of men and horses or in an 

 unoccupied house, and rushes there to hide. What 

 else could the act mean? So a hunted deer or sheep 

 will leap from a precipice which, under ordinary 

 circumstances, it would avoid. So would a man. 

 Fear makes bold in such cases. 



I certainly have found "good in everything," — 

 in all natural processes and products, — not the 

 "good" of the Sunday-school books, but the good of 



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