OUR SIX-FOOTED RIVALS. 349 



the author is to be sought. That, then, is a true instinct which so 

 intimately associates power of expression with power of character 

 generally. Of this power, too, the distinguishing feature is its indi- 

 viduality. Just as in animal life the ascent of the scale of creation is 

 a pi*ocess of differentiation of functions ; just as a higher form of life 

 is marked off from a lower form by greater specialty of shape, by 

 powers more accurately defined, by habits more peculiarly its own : 

 so in the comparison of man with man, something similar to this law 

 is traceable, pointing out that the superiority of genius in degree is 

 mainly a consequence of its difference in kind. 



Thus Nature seems to speak in a continued protest against uni- 

 formity, by a thousand analogies insisting upon the supreme impor- 

 tance of the individual. And the critical verdict which pronounces 

 that writing; best which is the most natural can be affiliated to as wide 

 a law as this. Whether or not it be thought that each man is put into 

 the world the possessor of some particular truth, which his acts or 

 w r ords can set before his fellow-creatures, it is at any rate clear that 

 the inevitable specialty of each man's experiences must present things 

 to him in an aspect which can be exactly the same for no other. 

 There are no real doubles in the world, no such thing as identity in 

 constitution and circumstances. While, then, this is so, there is a 

 significance in style, a value in the unconscious self-revelations of 

 traits of personality. However a man may fail of the object he sets 

 before him in what he does or says, yet if there has been in him that 

 conscientious fidelity to his purpose, which is but an attempt to ex- 

 press himself, his work will not have been wasted, though its direct 

 worth be unimportant. Macmillari 's Magazine. 







OUE SIX-FOOTED KIYALS. 



11. 



EVEN more wonderful than the mere intelligence of the ant is its 

 power of organization the point, probably, in which it ap- 

 proaches most closely to man. Suppose that ants, instead of forming 

 nations, lived like most creatures, merely in pairs, each endeavoring 

 to rear a young brood, who, when mature, would enter upon a simi- 

 larly isolated career. Let them be as brave, as intelligent, and as 

 strong, as they now are, still how humble and insecure would be their 

 position ! Against the attacks of the giant spiders, centipedes, hor- 

 nets, and wasps of warm climates, they could make no effectual resist- 

 ance. Prey, which in their present condition they easily secure, would 

 escape them, or would scarcely even notice their puny efforts. In 

 short, there is every reason to believe that many of their species 

 would become extinct, and that the remainder would live, so to 



