240 MESSALINA OF THE MESHES 



How different from the spider's would be human per- 

 formance directed by personal intelligence. Suppose that 

 a Cockney from Spitalfields found himself so situated 

 as to be forced to make a living as a herring-fisher or a 

 rabbit-catcher. Motor or functional co-ordination would 

 not help him much, for he can neither swim like a fish 

 nor run like a rodent. He must first seek instruction 

 from experts or consult suitable literature; and then, 

 even if he may dispense with a laborious apprenticeship 

 in these comparatively simple crafts, he must obtain or 

 construct special instruments, in the use whereof he will 

 prove deplorably unskilful at first. Even so, he would 

 be availing himself of the accumulated experience and 

 manifold devices of past generations. Deprive him of 

 these, and he must die of starvation on the shore of a sea 

 teeming with herrings or in the best stocked warren in 

 the realm, before his intelligence should enable him to 

 supply himself with food. 



XXXVIII 



Of the spider's ferocious attributes an instance was 

 Messaiina of lately brought to my observation by a friend, 

 the Meshes so revolting as almost to obliterate the tradi- 

 tional reverence which all true Scotsmen owe to the whole 

 race of spiders. In the corner of his gunroom one of the 

 long-legged race of spiders (I am quite unable to define 

 the species) had spread her net. The place was badly 

 lighted, and altogether an extremely unlikely one for 

 sport with flies. ' Fool,' thought my friend, ' you '11 catch 

 nothing there. Your best chance would be in a sunny 

 place ; here you are like to die of starvation.' 



Little did he understand the demoniac purposes of the 



