tice.

A little inquiry, however, into this phenomenon will help us to
understand it better. It has its root primarily in that very common
tendency of man to impute to his neighbor a type of behavior, a form of
reaction, of which he would gladly avail himself were he in his
neighbor's place, and the weapon he would use under the circumstances
would very likely be that exquisitely human trait, deceit, malingering.
It is a weapon which has played a tremendous part in the evolutionary
struggle, not only of man but of all living things; in a broader sense,
it may be looked upon as an organic function, as an endowment, thanks
to which the weak, inferior being is able to avoid the danger of
becoming the prey of the stronger, superior being. This function is very
well illustrated in those animals which are able to acquire the color of
their immediate surroundings in order to render themselves more
difficult of detection. It is common among various insects, reptiles,
and amphibians. The chameleon may be especially mentioned in this
connection. Even the eggs acquire, in the process of natural selection,
the color of the place where they are deposited, and the cuckoo which is
about to cheat a couple of another species by placing her eggs in their
nest for them to hatch selects that species the color of whose eggs most
closely resembles that of her own, in order to assure herself of the
success of the deception. The simulation and malingering practiced by
the fox is common knowledge. Malingering, an instinctive function
originally, has, in the process of evolution, become an act of reason
with certain animals. One is forced to believe, from a survey of
mythological writings, that primitive man must have had recourse to
simulation and all else that this term stands for whenever he was
confronted with an especially difficult problem in his struggles for
existence. To the gods was attributed, among other special propensities,
the ability to assume any shape or form, else how could they have
performed all those miraculous escapades? Thus we are told that Jove
transformed himself into an eagle when he carried off Ganymede.
Achilles, the son of a goddess, sought to avoid the iniquitous fate
which drove him to Troy by disguising himself as a woman. Deception is a
common weapon of defense with the savage and with the inferior races of
today. It is the tool by means of which these individuals render things
as they want them to be; it is wi