62 THE HAUNTS OF LIFE 
learning lessons as we do, by getting ideas into 
our head, but rather as the races of domestic 
dogs or horses have in the course of thousands 
of years learned lessons. Inborn qualities that 
were unsuitable have brought penalties to their 
possessors, and these have been wiped out 
from the list of shore animals. Inborn quali- 
ties that were peculiarly well fitted for shore- 
conditions have brought their possessors great 
success, and these possessors have survived. 
When useful qualities are established in a 
race of animals, like docility in dogs, they are 
not readily lost. They may be lost along cer- 
tain lines of descent, just as pigment has been 
lost in white rats which are descendants of 
the common brown rat, but they are not likely 
to be lost altogether. So it is not fanciful to 
suppose that qualities, which were established 
among shore animals millions of years ago, 
may have enriched the inheritance of animals 
which are now far away from the shore, may 
even have enriched Man’s inheritance. Those 
in the highest form of a school may not re- 
member that they learned anything when they 
were in the junior school, though they prob- 
ably learned much! 
But what were the good qualities which the 
