Nature s hitelligence 103 



where and in all things is the only scientific or philo- 

 sophical evidence we have that there is such a thing 

 as spirit. 



My next consideration, therefore, is this: That 

 while we are thus able to trace the identity of a 

 great law which dominates the physical universe, 

 upward until it is lost in height beyond the range 

 of our intellectual vision, we may fairly infer that 

 the law of spiritual life is equally simple, omnipo- 

 tent, and omnipresent, reaching through all grades 

 and forms of living things, even to the sweet flowers 

 which bloom along our way. In attempting to 

 verify this view by an appeal to facts, I should sim- 

 ply be overwhelmed by their number, cogency, and 

 conclusiveness. Indeed, I cannot hope to adduce 

 a fresh idea or argument bearing on the truth that 

 the lower animals are possessed of moral as well as 

 intellectual faculties, differing from man's, not in 

 kind, but only in degree. And yet I can scarcely 

 hope to state a fresh idea in a topic so familiar to 

 thoughtful and observant minds. One no sooner 

 enters this field than he finds himself in the midst 

 of intellectual and moral phenomena as varied, pro- 

 fuse, and beautiful as the flowers and birds in a 

 tropical land. And yet, as I have intimated, moral- 

 ists, metaphysicians, and theologians have lived, 

 and yet live, in the midst of all this interest and 

 beauty, blind to its appeals and deaf to its music. 

 They seem to fear that the facts might in some way 

 impeach the dignity or discredit the immortality of 



