g
water-fowl, more among foxes than among prairie-dogs, more among
moose than among sheep or buffalo, more among grouse than among quail.
But I do not know that this is true.

Yet among none of these would one expect to find the diversity of
individual types that one finds among men. No two dogs of the same
breed will be found to differ as two men of the same family often
differ. An original fox, or wolf, or bear, or beaver, or crow, or
crab,--that is, one not merely different from his fellows, but
obviously superior to them, differing from them as a master mind
differs from the ordinary mind,--I think, one need not expect to find.
It is quite legitimate for the animal-story writer to make the most of
the individual differences in habits and disposition among the
animals; he has the same latitude any other story writer has, but he
is bound also by the same law of probability, the same need of
fidelity to nature. If he proceed upon the theory that the wild
creatures have as pronounced individuality as men have, that there are
master minds among them, inventors and discoverers of new ways, born
captains and heroes, he will surely "o'erstep the modesty of nature."

The great diversity of character and capacity among men doubtless
arises from their greater and more complex needs, relations, and
aspirations. The animals' needs in comparison are few, their relations
simple, and their aspirations _nil_. One cannot see what could give
rise to the individual types and exceptional endowments that are
often claimed for them. The law of variation, as I have said, would
give rise to differences, but not to a sudden reversal of race habits,
or to animal geniuses.

The law of variation is everywhere operative--less so now, no doubt,
than in the earlier history of organic life on the globe. Yet Nature
is still experimenting in her blind way, and hits upon many curious
differences and departures. But I suppose if the race of man were
exterminated, man would never arise again. I doubt if the law of
evolution could ever again produce him, or any other species of
animal.

This principle of variation was no doubt much more active back in
geologic time, during the early history of animal life upon the globe,
than it is in this late age. And for the reason that animal life was
less adapted to its environment than it is now, the struggle for life
was sharper. Perfect adaptation of any form of life to the conditions
surrounding it seems t