f evidence derived not only
from correspondence in general appearance, but also from similarity in
the most minute particulars. Nothing is small: I am as much convinced of
that as any man; and I admire the extraordinary precision of the details
furnished as a basis for the theory. But am I convinced? Rightly or
wrongly, my turn of mind does not hold minutiae of structure in great
favour: a joint of the palpi leaves me rather cold; a tuft of bristles
does not appear to me an unanswerable argument. I prefer to question the
creature direct and to let it describe its passions, its mode of life,
its aptitudes. Having heard its evidence, we shall see what becomes of
the theory of parasitism.

Before calling upon it to speak, why should I not say what I have on my
mind? And mark me, first of all, I do not like that laziness which is
said to favour the animal's prosperity. I have also believed and I still
persist in believing that activity alone strengthens the present and
ensures the future both of animals and men. To act is to live; to work
is to go forward. The energy of a race is measured by the aggregate of
its action.

No, I do not like it at all, this idleness so much commended of science.
We have quite enough of these zoological brutalities: man, the son of
the Ape; duty, a foolish prejudice; conscience, a lure for the simple;
genius, neurosis; patriotism, jingo heroics; the soul, a product of
protoplasmic energies; God, a puerile myth. Let us raise the war-whoop
and go out for scalps; we are here only to devour one another; the
summum bonum is the Chicago packer's dollar-chest! Enough, quite enough
of that, without having transformism next to break down the sacred law
of work. I will not hold it responsible for our moral ruin; it has not
a sturdy enough shoulder to effect such a breach; but still it has done
its worst.

No, once more, I do not like those brutalities which, denying all that
gives some dignity to our wretched life, stifle our horizon under an
extinguisher of matter. Oh, don't come and forbid me to think, though it
were but a dream, of a responsible human personality, of conscience, of
duty, of the dignity of labour! Everything is linked together: if the
animal is better off, as regards both itself and its race, for doing
nothing and exploiting others, why should man, its descendant,
show greater scruples? The principle that idleness is the mother of
prosperity would carry us far indeed. I have said en