4, LUCK, OR CUNNING ? 



■will tend to live longer than one which reproduces 

 early. If the theory of " Life and Habit " be admitted, 

 the fact of a slow-growing animal being in general 

 longer lived than a quick developer is seen to be con- 

 nected with, and to follow as a matter of course from, 

 the fact of our being able to remember anything at 

 all, and all the well-known traits of memory, as 

 observed where we can best take note of them, are 

 perceived to be reproduced with singular fidelity in 

 the development of an animal from its embjyonic 

 stages to maturity. 



Take this view, and the very general sterility of 

 hybrids from being a cnnc of the theory of descent 

 becomes a stronghold of defence. It appears as part 

 of the same story as the benefit derived from judicious, 

 and the mischief from injudicious, crossing; and this, 

 in its turn, is seen as part of the same story, as the 

 good we get from change of air and scene when we 

 are overworked. I will not amplify ; but reversion to 

 long-lost, or feral, characteristics, the phenomena of 

 old age, the fact of the reproductive system being 

 generally the last to arrive at maturity — few further 

 developments occurring in any organism after this has 

 been attained — the sterility of many animals in con- 

 finement, the development in both males and females 

 under certain circumstances of the characteristics of 

 the opposite sex, the latency of memory, the uncon- 

 sciousness with which we grow, and indeed perform 

 all familiar actions, these points, though hitherto, 

 most of them, so apparently inexplicable that no one 

 even attempted to explain them, became at once 



