CONJUGAL MORALS OF THE FOX« 
275 
on account of his cynicism and the scandalous brutality of his 
loves, but I reply in behalf of the dog, to the moralists ; that the 
conjugal fidelity on which the fox prides himself, is only the attri- 
bute of inferior natures, and that the influence of the Papillon has 
never tarnished the lustre of any great renown, either masculine 
or feminine ; witness Alcibiades, Aspasia, Solomon, Charlemagne, 
Francis I., Henry IV., Louis XIV., Catharine, and Ninon de L’En- 
clos. Who shall say, after this, that the cynical inconstancy 
which characterizes the temperament of the domestic dog, like 
that of the ass, has Rot its justifying reason ? Who shall say 
that the great question of the connection with man of rebellious 
species, like the wolf, the zebra, the onagra, may not result from 
this vice of facility in love with which the dog and the ass are 
reproached ? I ask you, how is the wolf to be connected with 
man’s service without intermediary crossings? for I believe in the 
educability of the wolf ; it is one of my weaknesses. But this is 
too learned for the academicians. I stop. Let us leave the pros- 
trate moralists to breathe a moment, while we occupy ourselves 
exclusively with the fox, and follow him in the different phases of 
his career. 
The fox marries, but he is not monogamous, he only earths 
with the female for the time when the education of his family ren- 
der his cares necessary. 
This union, which begins toward the end of winter, lasts until 
the month of August. The fox goes with young two months, 
like the wolf and the bitch ; she brings forth in April a litter of 
five cu’'s. It is observed that except during their married life 
the foxes, both male and female, keep very quiet. It is the ad- 
vent of the family which develops luxuriously in the father and 
mother, those instincts of pillage and theft with which they are 
endowed. 
It is the same with the civilizees, where we often see young 
commission merchants, very delicate in their game before mar- 
riage, turn up jack immediately afterward. I know a rich 
merchant of Paris, a ferocious republican, who one day com- 
plained to me that he was making too much money on the work 
of poor weavers. It was Nero in despair at knowing how to 
