Paul’s method of being all things to all men suggests that a wise and
proper conformity to one’s surroundings, where it involves no sacrifice
of principle, may be as useful as the white hue of animals in arctic
regions described in this extract:
Wherever all the world around is remarkably uniform in color
and appearance, all the animals, birds, and insects alike
necessarily disguise themselves in its prevailing tint to escape
observation. It does not matter in the least whether they are
predatory or defenseless, the hunters or the hunted; if they are
to escape destruction or starvation, as the case may be, they
must assume the hue of all the rest of nature about them. In the
arctic snows, for example, all animals, without exception, must
needs be snow-white. The polar bear, if he were brown or black,
would immediately be observed among the unvaried ice-fields by
his expected prey, and could never get a chance of approaching
his quarry unperceived at close quarters. On the other hand,
the arctic hare must equally be drest in a snow-white coat, or
the arctic fox would too readily discover him and pounce down
upon him off-hand; while conversely, the fox himself, if red or
brown, could never creep upon the unwary hare without previous
detection, which would defeat his purpose. For this reason, the
ptarmigan and the willow-grouse become as white in winter as the
vast snow-fields under which they burrow; the ermine changes
his dusky summer coat for the expensive wintry suit beloved
of British Themis; the snow-bunting acquires his milk-white
plumage; and even the weasel assimilates himself more or less
in hue to the unvarying garb of arctic nature. To be out of the
fashion is there quite literally to be out of the world; no half
measures will suit the stern decree of polar biology; strict
compliance with the law of winter change is absolutely necessary
to success in the struggle for existence. (Text.)--_Cornhill
Magazine._
(532)
=Congenital Neurasthenics=--See INEBRIETY, INCURABLE.
=Conjugal Rights=--See ROBBING JUSTIFIED.