ANIMALS IN SOCIETY 



MR KIPLING in his Jungle Book, has amused him- 

 self and delighted his readers by constructing a wild- 

 beast society living in the woods, true in habits to 

 the instincts each of its kind, but recognising a sort 

 of social obligation, laws, and customs which are in- 

 herited, discussed, enforced, or remitted by the col- 

 lective wisdom of the creatures themselves. The 

 effect is perfectly convincing, and there is no sense 

 of incongruity or make-believe in reading these 

 chapters, partly because of the art with which they 

 are written, but partly because the real life of the 

 jungle creatures is itself so intelligent and intel- 

 ligible that it seems perfectly rational to find that they 

 have progressed a step further, and formed them- 

 selves into a society whose members play parts sub- 

 ordinate to some generally understood law. The 

 wonder is not that they should do so, but that they 

 should not. Yet it is on the whole true of the higher 

 individual intelligences among animals, that, properly 



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