EARS AND EYES 65 



begin to understand Nature until you see clearly 

 that every life is dominated by two supreme anxieties 

 which push aside all other concerns — viz., to eat, 

 and not to be eaten. The one is uppermost in those 

 that pursue, and the other in those that flee. Now 

 if the pursuer fails he loses a dinner, but if the 

 fugitive fails he loses his life, from which it follows 

 that the very best sort of ears will be found among 

 those beasts that do not ravage but run. 



But there is another matter to be taken into 

 account. The ears are not the whole of the beast's 

 outfit. It has eyes, and it has a nose. Which of the 

 three it most relies on depends upon the manner of 

 its life. A bird lives in trees or the air, looking 

 down at the prowling cat or up at the hawk hovering 

 in the clear sky ; so it does not keep ears, and its nose 

 is of no account. But what four-footed thing can 

 see like a bird ? The squirrel also lives in the trees, 

 and its ears are frivolously decorated with tufts of 

 hair. You will not find many beasts that can afford 

 to prostitute their ears to ornamental purposes. 

 The only other beast that I can think of at this 

 moment which has tufted ears is the lynx. Now 

 the lynx is a tree cat, and there is proverbial wisdom 

 in the saying " Eyes like a lynx." 



But go to the timid beasts that spend their lives 

 on the ground among grass and brushwood and woods 

 and coppices, where murderous foes are prowling 

 unseen, and you will see ears indeed — expansive, 

 tremulous, turning lightly on well-oiled pivots, and 



