24 Reasoning in Animals. [January, 



this, and treat it in the same way with other ninety-nine grains of 

 sugar of milk, and so on. At the third dilution, as we may call it, the 

 powder thus resulting from a cubic inch of sulphur would cover two 

 square miles of area ; at the fifth, the empire of Austria ; at the sixth, 

 the whole of Asia and Africa ; at the ninth, it would cover the entire 

 surface of the sun, with all its planets, and all their satellites. And 

 yet, although in every grain of this powder the sulphur was found to be 

 present, we had not reduced it to atoms. Again, it is well known that 

 every drop of putrid water, under certain circumstances, contains mil- 

 lions of animalcules, invisible except to high powers of the microscope. 

 And every one of these animalcules is a highly organized being, having 

 at least something analogous to a skeleton — capable of action — of pur- 

 suing, of retreating, of attack and of defense. The globules of the blood 

 of an elephant are perceivable only with a powerful microscope, and yet 

 these animalcules must have blood, and that blood must consist of similar 

 globules. Once more ! The Bovista Gigantea, a specie of mushroom, in 

 the space of twelve hours, shoots up from a scarcely perceptible germ to 

 a plant a foot in diameter. Every square inch of its surface contains 

 three hundred and thirty-six millions of cells, every cell, with their six 

 sides, is divided from those around it by filaments of far more complex 

 structure than an atom of potash, and yet we have not got a glimpse 

 even of the atoms of which they are composed. He would confess, 

 inquiries such as these inspired him with but one feeling— fear. It was 

 as if he were taken, by some profound astronomer, -far among the worlds 

 that people infinite space, and he was ready to cry out for some one to 

 lead him back to solid ground once more. One thing only gave him 

 comfort : he knew of something higher, deeper than those facts — it was 

 their idea. These were, after all, only the letters in which the infinite 

 idea is blazoned. He felt as did the deep-thoughted Pascal, when he 

 exclaimed, that although the universe were to crush him, he would still 

 feel himself greater than the universe, for lie knew that and lioiv it was 

 crushing him. 



REASONING IN ANIMALS, 



The following remarkable instance of sagacity in the swallow is taken 

 from "Everett's Life of Dr. Adam Clark." It may serve to rouse our 

 minds to the consideration of the question touching the reasoning capa- 

 city of animals : 



