THE DONKEY. 12/ 



Now, when our primeval donkeys went to 

 quench their thirst at a river, any incautious 

 animals which waded in before drinking, as is the 

 custom with horses and cattle, would be more 

 liable to be seized by crocodiles than those which 

 feared to wet their feet, and which started away 

 as soon as they noticed any strange object in the 

 water. In a comparatively short time in any 

 country where crocodiles were plentiful the more 

 reckless drinkers among the herd would be 

 eliminated. This sifting-out process would go on 

 continually ; so that in the end the majority of 

 the origrinal members of the herd which remained 

 would be such as had from the first manifested 

 this instinctive aversion. And, since " like pro- 

 duces like," all the young asses born of such 

 parentage would tend to inherit similar mental 

 tendencies. Moreover, the influence which first 

 evoked this natural trait would be constantly at 

 work from veneration to oreneration ; for it is 

 plain that while the environment remained the 

 same, every young animal which took after his 

 more reckless progenitors would tend to be 

 eliminated just as they were. 



I do not mean to imply that the controversy 

 which has raged so fiercely of late as to the in- 



