How does she know so much? How did all this come about? Instinct. Evolution. I know those words. I understand the logic of the survival of the fittest: good mothering instincts have survived because bad mothers lost their calves: the good traits triumphed, the bad perished. But how come some are fit in the first place? What prepared in the mind of the first cow or ewe or mare – or, for that matter, in the mind of the first human mother – this intricate, careful, passionate welcome to the newborn? I don’t know. I don’t think anybody does. I distrust any mortal who claims to know. We call these
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