72 Hounds 



between the two. One is compelled to go back 

 to the far mediaeval epoch, when there was not so 

 very wide a distinction between the genus homo and 

 the fauna of the world, when the course of hfe and 

 being was ruled to a considerable extent by the con- 

 tinuous necessity of satisfying the calls of hunger and 

 thirst and safety and the passions. This quartette 

 right down the ages begat instinct, which is innate 

 and cannot be taught. To a certain extent reasoning 

 powers were developed under favourable auspices, 

 the banding and uniting of clans or species for the 

 better preservation of life and the means whereby life 

 is created and maintained. Local surroundings and 

 conditions, climate, and even colouring, influenced 

 the form, height, size, colour of the animal kingdom, 

 which in its absolutely wild and natural conditions 

 had, and to a certain extent still has, a wonderful 

 sympathy with that inner entity of things, the in- 

 describable something which is to flora and fauna 

 what personality is to human beings — that which 

 remains when a thing is stripped of all its accidents. 

 This sympathy is Httle understood and less quoted 

 in reviewing the evolution of species, yet it has ever 

 been an important factor. It is a platitude that the 

 primary concern of flesh and blood is food, and to a 

 certain degree the first concern of plant life is the 

 same. Almost the first action of an animal on being 

 born is to search for its mother's teats. This is 



