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I N A G U A 



turn. It is the same form of madness which at times mysteri- 

 ously seizes the migrating lemmings of Norway and causes 

 them to plunge in hordes over the fjord walls into the sea where 

 they drown in the hundreds, an insanity which seems to be 

 due to an epidemic disease resulting from overcrowding. Per- 

 haps the same urge which causes the land-living butterflies to 

 gather suddenly and permit themselves to be swirled to a death 

 on the ocean and which causes the lemmings to depart on their 

 seemingly hopeless migrations has the same biological root as 

 the unexplainable urge or "will-to-follow" which afflicts as 

 a kind of disease normally peaceful and sedentary humans, 

 catches up their emotions and coalesces them into war-mad 

 nations intent on self destruction. The sudden burst of energy 

 that centered about the person of Genghis Khan and swept 

 like a whirlwind over the steppes of Asia, and the similar 

 unaccountable flare of power which hurled the force of the 

 Crusades out of a Medieval Europe on an unsuspecting Jeru- 

 salem, the great swirl of human emotion which brought down 

 on Rome the restless hordes of barbarians from northern Eu- 

 rope, or the more modern will-to-power of a Fiihrer-f ollowing 

 Germany have a deeper significance than the leadership of one 

 man, or group of men, however magnetic they may be. The 

 leader is but the spark that sets the energy in motion. Men or 

 mice or butterflies are all subject to their madnesses; these differ 

 only in effect and potentialities. 



The making of an island is a long and tedious process. I can 

 plow up my back yard, turn under all vegetation, burn off the 

 residue, plow it again until the soil is seemingly barren of all 

 life, a patch of yellow brown dirt. Unless I persist, however, 

 this patch in the short space of two or three weeks will become 

 a carpet of green weeds, plantains, daisies, morning-glories, Jim- 

 son weed, phlox, violets, grass, moss, curling vines, small sap- 

 lings, stems of blackberry and bramble. The small six acres of 



