Instinct and Discernment 



latitude, the changing seasons, the abundance 

 or scarcity of game introduce no modification 

 into this diet, though the larva shows itself 

 satisfied with other fare provided by myself. 

 Its forebears were brought up on Spiders; 

 their descendants consumed similar food; and 

 their posterity again will know no other. Not 

 a single circumstance, however favourable, 

 will ever persuade the Pelopaeus that young 

 Crickets, for Instance, are as good as Spiders 

 and that her family would accept them gladly. 

 Instinct binds her down to the national diet. 

 But, should the Epeira,' the favourite prey, 

 be lacking, must the Pelopa?us therefore give 

 up foraging? She will stock her warehouses 

 all the same, because any Spider suits her. 

 There you have discernment, whose elasticity 

 makes up, in certain circumstances, for the 

 too-great rigidity of instinct. Amid the In- 

 numerable variety of game, the huntress is 

 able to discern between what is Spider and 

 what Is not; and. In this way, she is always 

 prepared to supply her family, without quit- 

 ting the domain of her Instinct. 



'The Weaving or Garden Spider. Cf. The Life of the 

 Spider: chaps, ix. to xiv. and appendix. — Translator's 

 Note. 



197 



