al slit
open above. By accident, with no definite purpose in view, it emptied
the contents of its intestine over its back. The natty Fly hesitated
in the presence of this filth. The grub, in its cunning, recognized,
as time went on, the benefit to be derived from its poultice; and what
at first was an unpremeditated pollution became a prudent custom.

As success followed upon success, with the aid of the centuries, of
course, for these inventions always take centuries, the dung overcoat
was extended from the hinder end to the fore-part, right down to the
forehead. Finding itself the gainer by this invention, setting the
parasite at defiance under its coverlet, the grub made a strict law of
what was an accident; and the Crioceris faithfully handed down the
repulsive great-coat to her offspring.

So far this is not so bad. But things now begin to become complicated.
If the insect was really the inventor of its defensive methods, if it
discovered for itself the advantage of hiding under its ordure, I look
to its ingenuity to keep up the tricks until the precise moment has
come for burying itself. But, on the contrary, it undresses itself
some time beforehand; it wanders about naked, taking the air on the
leaves, at a time when its fair round belly is more than ever likely
to tempt the Fly. It completely forgets, on its last day, the prudence
which it acquired by the long apprenticeship of the centuries.

This sudden change of purpose, this heedlessness in the face of danger
tells me that the insect forgets nothing, because it has learnt
nothing, because it has invented nothing. When the instincts were
being distributed, it received as its share the overcoat, of whose
methods it is ignorant, though it benefits by its advantages. It has
not acquired it by successive stages, followed by a sudden halt at the
most dangerous moment, the moment most calculated to inspire it with
distrust; it is no more and no less gifted than it was in the
beginning and is unable in any way to alter its tactics against the
Tachina and its other enemies.

Nevertheless, we must not be in a hurry to attribute to the garment of
filth the exclusive function of protecting the grub against the
parasite. It is difficult to see in what respect the Lily-grub is more
deserving than the Asparagus-grub, which possesses no defensive arts.
Perhaps it is less fruitful and, to make up for the poverty of the
ovaries, boasts an ingenuity which safeguards the ra