212 THE PHILOSOPHY OF BIRDS’ NESTS. 
struct his dwelling by reason ; that birds do change and 
improve when affected by the same causes that make 
men do so; and that mankind neither alter nor improve 
when they exist under conditions similar to those which 
are almost universal among birds. 
Do Men build by Reason or by Imitation? 
Let us first consider the theory of reason, as alone 
determining the domestic architecture of the human 
race. Man, as a reasonable animal, it is said, con- 
tinually alters and improves his dwelling. This I en- 
tirely deny. As arule, he neither alters nor improves, 
any more than the birds do. What have the houses of 
most savage tribes improved from, each as invariable as 
the nest of a species of bird? The tents of the Arab 
are the same now as they were two or three thousand 
years ago, and the mud villages of Egypt can scarcely 
have improved since the time of the Pharoahs. The 
palm-leaf huts and hovels of the various tribes of South 
America and the Malay Archipelago, what have they 
improved from since those regions were first inhabited ? 
The Patagonian’s rude shelter of leaves, the hollowed 
bank of the South African Harthmen, we cannot even 
conceive to have been ever inferior to what they now 
are. Even nearer home, the Irish turf cabin and the 
Highland stone shelty can hardly have advanced much 
during the last two thousand years. Now, no one 
imputes this stationary condition of domestic archi- 
tecture among these savage tribes to instinct, but to 
simple imitation from one generation to another, and 
