Uniformity of Nature. 235 



animals, the ^^ Agricultural Ants''' "^ of Texas, raise, 

 as well as harvest, a crop, the entire process is so 

 complex, and yet uniform in all places, that it 

 seems wholly the work of Instinct, as does also the 

 care of other species of Ants for their herds of Apli- 

 ides.-\ The expectation that there will be rain or 

 snow in their season, probably every one will believe 

 to be founded on observation and experience. 

 More persons would differ as to our belief in the 

 uniform order of the seasons, and the stated return 

 of day and night. But little thought will convince 

 us that these are as truly contingent, as is the com- 

 ing of rain and snow. The cycles are so great, 

 that we do not note the irregularity of their return ; 

 but we see agencies at work that might change 

 them all, and probably are changing them all. Our 

 intuitive belief in the relation of cause and effect, 

 remains ; but we learn by experience alone, the 

 results which the causes now acting in nature pro- 

 duce. What has been always uniform in our ex- 

 perience, we expect will continue so. 



Now it is necessary for some animals, that they 

 should act, not only as though they possessed this 

 generic belief in causation, but that they should also 

 act in reference to contingent events, of which they 

 have had no experience. This is also a very impor- 

 tant point in the argument. The Squirrel, that has 

 never seen a winter, lays up food in autumn when, 

 from its abundance everywhere, it would seem that 



* "Homes Without Hands," (Wood), pp. 370-373. 

 f Kirby and Spence, 7tli. Ed., pp. 335, 336. 



