he could prove that he had long thought of doing it, they would tend
to forgive him. "Poor fellow, he brooded," they would say. "That's
upsetting to any one."

As to modesty and decency, if we are simians we have done well,
considering: but if we are something else--fallen angels--we have
indeed fallen far. Not being modest by instinct we invent artificial
ideals, which are doubtless well-meaning but are inherently of course
second-rate, so that even at our best we smell prudish. And as
for our worst, when .we as we say let ourselves go, we dirty the
life-force unspeakably, with chuckles and leers. But a race so
indecent by nature as the simians are would naturally have a hard
time behaving as though they were not: and the strain of pretending
that their thoughts were all pretty and sweet, would naturally send
them to smutty extremes for relief. The standards of purity we have
adopted are far too strict--for simians.



XIV


We were speaking a while ago of the fertility with which simians
breed. This is partly due to the constant love interest they
take in each other, but it is also reenforced by their reliance
on numbers. That reliance will be deep, since, to their numbers,
they will owe much success. It will be thus that they will drive
out other species, and garrison the globe. Such a race would
naturally come to esteem fertility. It will seem profane not to.