$6 Instinct, 



as the symbol of strength. Every limb is banded 

 with swollen rings of gnarled and knotted fibre. 

 The work is done for centuries, and every year adds 

 new supports to meet the increasing weight from 

 growth. But this work is all varied as the exi- 

 gencies of the case demand. The oak upon the 

 hill-side, exposed to every wind, builds its base 

 broader, springs every buttress deeper, and strength- 

 ens most the side that must bear the constant at- 

 tack. All this is the law of its growth, says one. 

 Certainly it is, but that law of growth provides, like 

 the law of Instinct, for the preservation of the indi- 

 vidual according to the conditions which are to be 

 met. There is in the organism a certain amount of 

 flexibility, enabling it to meet the varying condi- 

 tions, and an actual change according to the condi- 

 tions, as certain and complete within certain limits 

 as though sensation and volition were agencies in 

 the work. 



Every tree is a community of individuals, and 

 the trunk is the common work of all the buds and for 

 their use, as the coral dome is for the coral polyps, or 

 the hornet's nest is for the community of hornets. 

 The coral dome is the product of growth and the 

 nest is the work of Instinct ; but they both have 

 the same relation to a community, they are the 

 joint product and the joint property of all the indi- 

 viduals that labored or were concerned directly or 

 indirectly in their production. As the coral polyp, 

 each working for itself, aids by the law of its growth 

 to build up a structure for the benefit of the whole 

 colony, so do the oak buds by the law of their 



