WAYS OF NATURE 



the water was rough; but I could not look upon it 

 as an act of conscious or individual intelligence on 

 the part of the bivalve. It was as much an act of the 

 general intelligence to which I refer as was its hinge 

 or its form. But when the sailor anchors his ship, 

 that is another matter. He thinks about it, he rea 

 sons from cause to effect, he sees the storm coming, 

 he has a fund of experience, and his act is a special 

 individual act. 



The muskrat builds its house instinctively, and 

 all muskrats build alike. Man builds his house 

 from reason and forethought. Savages build as 

 nearly alike as the animals, but civilized man shows 

 an endless variety. The higher the intelligence, the 

 greater the diversity. 



The sitting bird that is so solicitous to keep its 

 eggs warm, or to feed and defend its young, prob 

 ably shows no more independent and individual 

 intelligence than the plant that strives so hard to ma 

 ture and scatter its seed. A plant will grow toward 

 the light; a tree will try to get from under another 

 tree that overshadows it ; a willow will run its roots 

 toward the water: but these acts are the results of 

 external stimuli alone. 



When I go to pass the winter in a warmer climate, 

 the act is the result of calculation and of weighing 

 pros and cons. I can go, or I can refrain from go 

 ing. Not so with the migrating birds. Nature plans 

 and thinks for them; it is not an individual act on 

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