Ill 



TAILS 



The secrets of Nature often play like an iridescence 

 on the surface, and escape the eye of her worshipper 

 because it is stopped with a microscope. There are 

 mysteries all about us as omnipresent as the move- 

 ment of the air that lifts the smoke and stirs the 

 leaves, which I cannot find that any philosopher has 

 looked into. Often and deeply have I been im- 

 pressed with this. For example, there is scarcely, 

 in this world, a commoner or a humbler thing than 

 a tail, yet how multifarious is it in aspect, in con- 

 struction, and in function, a hundred different 

 things and yet one. Some are of feathers and some 

 of hair, and some bare and skinny ; some are long 

 and some are short, some stick up and some hang 

 down, some wag for ever and some are still ; the 

 uses that they serve cannot be numbered, but one 

 name covers them all. In the course of evolution 

 they came in with the fishes and went out with man. 

 What was their purpose and mission ? What place 

 have they filled in the scheme of things ? In short, 

 what is the true inwardness of a tail ? 

 If we try to commence — as scientific method 



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