I would do with the family among mankind what
nature has done with the compound animal, and confine it to the lower and
less progressive races. Certainly there is no inherent love for the
family system on the part of nature herself. Poll the forms of life and
you will find it in a ridiculously small minority. The fishes know it
not, and they get along quite nicely. The ants and the bees, who far
outnumber man, sting their fathers to death as a matter of course, and
are given to the atrocious mutilation of nine-tenths of the offspring
committed to their charge, yet where shall we find communities more
universally respected? Take the cuckoo again--is there any bird which we
like better?"
I saw he was running off from his own reminiscences and tried to bring
him back to them, but it was no use.
"What a fool," he said, "a man is to remember anything that happened more
than a week ago unless it was pleasant, or unless he wants to make some
use of it.
"Sensible people get the greater part of their own dying done during
their own lifetime. A man at five and thirty should no more regret not
having had a happier childhood than he should regret not having been born
a prince of the blood.
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