Nature s Intelligence 107 



spirits kindred to our own, or at least kindred to 

 the sweetest and purest of those whom we love. 

 From Lucretius to Wordsworth, the poets have ever 

 been the avant-couriers of philosophy. They love 

 Nature, and are loved by Nature in return, and 

 there are secrets whispered in this intercourse for 

 which colder and coarser, though stronger, minds 

 must toilfully labor in the mines of thought. 



The intelligence and morality of which I think 

 traces may be found in the vegetable kingdom, 

 while sufficient for the purposes for which they were 

 bestowed, are not only limited in degree, but 

 limited in their functions. All that is claimed is, 

 that some elements existing in the higher are found 

 in the lower forms of life. It would not do to say 

 that a pyrite, an oxide, and a carbonate of iron are 

 identical. The one is a tawny stone, the other a 

 red dust, and the third a polished, lithe, glittering 

 sword-blade. And I would compare the morality 

 and intelligence of spiritual beings above man to 

 the sunbeams which bear in themselves intelligence 

 of iron incandescent in the sun; the same entities 

 in man to the sword-blade; in animals to the pyrite; 

 and in the vegetable kingdom to the red dust; but 

 down through all runs the same essential idea, the 

 same basis — iron. In like manner I would say that 

 spirit, the essential basis of the spiritual realm, 

 runs down through all forms of life to the lowest, 

 manifesting everywhere, in some way, its attributes 

 of intelligence and morality. 



