Beasts and birds long ago became afraid of man, and afraid of
him in a way wholly different from their fear of other forms of
animal life. This demonstrates that they recognize a difference,
as when I can not approach a snipe that will permit a cow almost
to tread upon it. Fear being the sum of disastrous experiences,
the birds that soonest learned the lesson of prudence left
the most descendants. The fearless ones paid the price of
their foolhardiness and died out. Such conditions did not call
for anatomical changes, but mental ones, and this increased
mentality that led to the preservation of the species is so near
the border line of what Goldwin Smith calls self-improvement
that it can be looked upon only as its forerunner, as birds and
all beasts foreran the man who was to prove their arch enemy.
(2015)
=Mercenary Spirit, The=--See GOLD, TAINT OF.