HARES. 43 



with this coarse food, and retire into his hiding 

 place a whole day while it digested. Under 

 such circumstances jio animal advances in brain 

 capacity. Such gifts of the brain are won out 

 of the stress, and struggle, and makeshifts that 

 our most intelligent creatures have experienced. 

 The species of animal that does not feel the 

 spur of necessity urging the use of brain power 

 will either remain comparatively stupid, or de- 

 generate into deformed parasites. It is a stern 

 law of nature that the possessor of one tal- 

 ent must put it out at some kind of profit, or 

 even that shall be taken away. Says Josh 

 Billings, " Them as has gets." Rabbits find life 

 too easy. They fulfil the promise of the Psalm- 

 ist, " The meek shall eat and be satisfied." If 

 it is just as well to be stupid and filled to the 

 throat with bark and browse as it is to be smart 

 and clever, then " Br. Rabbit " needs no sym- 

 pathy. The old Romans had a saying, that " He 

 who knows nothing spends the happiest life." 

 That may be true, but what is the quality of 

 the "happiness ? Is it not more desirable to be 

 Newton, demonstrating the problems of plane- 

 tary movements, than it is to be a toad under a 

 leaf absorbed in catching bugs and beetles? 

 One truth can be clearly made out in the study 

 of organic life, and it is this : Through millions 



