THE NATURAL 



of the same sort, although more naive. The male builds 

 a grass nest, then goes in search of a female, brings her 

 back to the nest, invites her to lay; scarcely has his first 

 companion departed when he brings in another. He only 

 stops when there is a satisfactory treasure of eggs, then 

 he fecundates them in the usual manner. Thence on he 

 guards the nest against malefactors, and watches the 

 hatching. In the odd reversal of roles, the young recog- 

 nize their father; their mother may be the fish passing 

 between them, or the one gliding off like a shadow, or 

 the one chewing a grass blade. When the stickleback 

 world becomes reasonable, that is to say absurd, it will 

 perhaps give itself up to the "recherche de la maternite"? 

 Their philosophers will demand "Why should the father 

 alone be charged with the education of his offspring?" 

 Up to the present one knows nothing except that he edu- 

 cates them with joy and affection. Among sticklebacks 

 and among men there is no answer to such question save 

 the answer given by facts. One might as well ask why 

 humanity is not hermaphrodite, like the snails, who 

 strictly divide the pleasures and burdens of love, for all 

 snails commit the male act, and all lay. Why has the 

 female ovaries, and the male testicles: and this flower 

 pistils, and this one stamens? One ends in baby-talk. 

 The wish to correct nature is unnecessary. It is hard 

 enough to understand her, even a little, as she is. When 

 she wishes to establish the absolute responsibility of the 

 father, she establishes the strict couple, and especially, 

 absolute polygamy. The pigeon is no longer certain of 

 being the father of his young; the cock can not doubt 

 it, he being the sole male among all his hens. But nature 

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