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take a period of ten years to teach some animals the 
caution which is necessary for the preservation of their 
lives. It happened that I lived in the country at a time 
when the farmers of a certain parish vacillated in their 
policy towards sparrows. At one time they were assured 
that the sparrows were their best friends ; at other times 
they yielded to the popular prejudice in the opposite 
direction. The sparrows knew as well as the farmers what 
was going on. In the Reign of Terror they were always 
on the qui vive, and flew away at the slightest noise ; while 
at other times they were as bold as brass and as tame 
as barn-door fowls. 
The ease with which the seals were captured at first 
arose from the fact of the novelty of the attack ; and 
it seems reasonable to suppose that as soon as the animals 
understood their danger, they were intelligent enough 
to avoid it. If we once grant this, we can well believe 
that in the case of the seals, as well as other animals, 
the young would inherit shyness in face of danger as 
an instinctive tendency. 
On the other hand, the explanation that this shyness 
may have been due to Natural Selection is beset with 
difficulties. If Natural Selection be the sole cause, then 
we must assume that intelligence played no part in the 
matter. There were degrees of congenital shyness in 
the case of the seals, just as there are degrees of boldness 
or shyness in human beings. Now this shyness must have 
been either altogether unintelligent—a mere matter of 
nerves—or it must have been intelligent. In either case it 
could not fail to be influenced by the intelligence of 
the race. The conditions of the family are such that 
discipline prevails, and no mere congenital shyness would 
be allowed to develop itself. On the other hand, grant 
that the shyness was permitted to develop itself, and was