276 THE EVOLUTION OF. A MOTHER. 



any of the lower animals. The young of many birds 

 are at least a colorable imitation of their parents ; 

 Nature's young geese are at least like enough geese 

 not to be mistaken for swans ; no dog could be misled 

 into mistaking — even apart from the sense of smell — a 

 kitten for a puppy, nor would a hare ever be taken in 

 by the young of a rabbit. Among domestic animals 

 like the sheep and cow there is a culmination of 

 adaptation in this direction, the lamb and the calf 

 when born being ahiDost fac-similes of their Mothers. 

 But this point need not be dwelt on. It is of insignif- 

 icant importance, and belongs to the surface. The 

 idea of Nature going out of her way to make better 

 family likenesses will not stand scrutiny as a final end 

 in physiology. These illustrations are simply adduced 

 to confirm the impression that Nature is working not 

 aimlessly, not even mysteriously, but in a specific 

 direction ; that somehow the idea of Mothers is in her 

 mind, and that she is trying to draw closer and closer 

 the bonds which are to unite the children of men. It 

 will be enough if we have gathered from this paren- 

 thesis that some time in the remote past, parent and 

 child came to be introduced to one another ; that the 

 young when born into the world gradually approached 

 the parental form, that they no longer " shocked them 

 by their larval ugliness " ; so that " the first human 

 mother on record, seeing her first-born son, exclaimed • 

 ' I have gotten a Man from the Lord.' " ^ 



If this second process in the Evolution of Mother- 

 hood is of minor importance, the necessity for the 

 third will not be doubted. What use is there for per- 

 fecting the power of recognition between parent and 



1 Mammalian Descent, Prof. W. P. Parker, F. K. S., p. 14. 



