THE ORIGIN OF THE HUMAN SOUL 259 



varies at will both his aims and his methods. He can adapt 

 the sarfie means (a pocketknife, for instance) to different 

 ends, r.nd, conversely, he can obtain the same end by the use 

 of different means (e.g. communicate by mail, or telegraph, 

 or radio). Man, in a word, is emancipated from limitation 

 to the singular and the concrete by virtue of his unique 

 prerogative, reason, or intelligence, the power that enables 

 him to generalize from the particular and to abstract from 

 the concrete. This is the secret of his unlimited versatility. 

 This is the basis of his capacity for progress. This is the root 

 of his freedom; for his will seeks happiness in general, happi- 

 ness in the abstract, and is not, therefore, compelled to choose 

 any particular form or concrete embodiment of happiness, 

 such as this or that style of architecture, this or that form 

 of government, this or that kind of clothing, etc., etc. 

 Teleology is but a material expression of intelligence, and may, 

 therefore, occur in things destitute of intelligence, but versa- 

 tility is the inseparable concomitant and infallible sign of an 

 inherent and autonomous intelligence. Lacking this quality, 

 instinct, however telic, is obviously not intelligence. 



Another indication of the fact that no intelligence lies behind 

 the instinctive behavior of brutes is manifest from their evi- 

 dent unconsciousness of purpose. That the animal is ignorant 

 of the purpose implied in its own instinctive actions appears 

 from the fact that it will carry out these operations with futile 

 diligence and exactitude, even when, through accident, the pur- 

 pose is conspicuously absent. Thus the hen deprived 

 of her eggs will, nevertheless, continue the now futile 

 process of incubation for twenty-one days, or longer, 

 despite the fact that her obstinacy in maintaining the 

 straw of the empty nest at a temperature of 104° F. serves 

 no useful purpose whatever. She cannot but sense the 

 absence of the eggs; she has not, however, the intelligence to 

 realize that incubation without eggs is vain. The connection 

 between the latter and the former is something that mere sense 

 cannot apprehend. Hence the hen is not troubled by the pur- 



