MORAL PRINCIPLES OF THE FOX, 
273 
place perfectly sheltered from the Sun, then I caused his shop to 
be shut up, and I wrote, myself, upon the shutter, dosed for theft. 
How those gentlemen, the political economists, would have 
cried sacrilege, had they known my misdeeds, those worthy pre- 
ceptors of morality who do not understand that the wings of 
commerce should be clipped. 
Yes, alas ! I had hoped one day to suppress in my state mer- 
cantile robbery and the falsification of the sulphate of quinine. I 
had unfortunately reckoned without those powerful friends which 
commerce holds at its beck. 
It is known that the fox forms one of the principal groups of 
the great family of forcers^ a robust, intelligent family, gifted with a 
hamstring of steel, an exqusite scent, a piercing sight, a patience 
proof against trials, and the spirit of association. But superior 
instinct, force of jaws, and the genius of strategic combinations 
have specially devolved upon the wolf and the dog in this family, 
to the wolf, the emblem of the bandit, the smuggler ; to the 
dog, the emblem of the police officer and military guard ; the for- 
mer operating subversively, the latter harmoniously Vv^ith regard 
to man. 
The fox, whose dominant character is familism, is the Paria of 
the species. The wolf and the dog, whose characters are ambi- 
tion and friendship, are the noble caste, made for war, government 
and industry. 
The fox then marries. If learned men knew how to read in the 
works of the Creator, what a lesson of high morality they would 
find in this fact of the household of the fox, which has hitherto 
appeared to them the most insignificant of phenomena. 
Why does the fox marry, while the dog wffio belongs to the 
same family lives in celibacy? The partridge marries also, and not 
the domestic cock ; which is however the nearest species. Yv^hy this ? 
The institute has decreed many a golden medal for many a use- 
less solution, but I doubt whether it have ever proposed for com- 
petition this question, so fruitful in profound lessons. Why does the 
fox marry and not the dog ? Why the partridge and not the cock ? 
I shall not wait for the institute to propose these questions be- 
fore I reply to them, for I might have to wait a long time. 
