FIELD AND STUDY 



upon him than upon any other creature. His list of 

 dangerous diseases, from which the lower animals 

 are practically immune, is a long cine. He pays a big 

 price for his gift of reason. He majkes more mistakes 

 and suffers more accidents than any other creature. 

 He has invented tools and explosives and he is 

 maimed or blown to pieces by them. He has in- 

 vented destructive weapons and he is the victim of 

 devastating wars; he has conquered the sea at the 

 risk of shipwrecks and destruction; he has at last 

 conquered the air and in so doing has opened the 

 way to new failures and catastrophes. Every advan- 

 tage has its price; every new conquest has its attend- 

 ant perils. Human reason takes man out of the safe 

 round of the uneventful lives of the lower orders; 

 new enemies, new perils, new anguish, are the prices 

 paid for new achievements. 



§ 

 The cunning of the fox is proverbial, but see how 

 his wit fails him under absolutely new conditions! 

 Dan Beard tells, in his delightful "Animal Book," 

 of two tame red foxes that he once had and that he 

 kept chained together. At night they used to prowl 

 about the neighborhood a good deal and they fre- 

 quently came to grief in this way; they would each 

 try to go through separate holes in the fence or 

 hedge, when, of course, the chain, would bring them 

 up short; and they never learned the trick of one 

 following the other through the same hole. A mere 

 292 



