WAYS OF NATURE 



wilted ; but the truth probably is that there was no 

 calculation in the matter; the soil drew out or 

 dulled the smell of the poison and of the man s 

 hand, and so allayed the wolf s suspicions. 



I suppose that when an animal practices decep 

 tion, as when a bird feigns lameness or a broken 

 wing to decoy you away from her nest or her young, 

 it is quite unconscious of the act. It takes no thought 

 about the matter. In trying to call a hen to his side, 

 a rooster will often make believe he has food in his 

 beak, when the pretended grain or insect may be 

 only a pebble or a bit of stick. He picks it up and 

 then drops it in sight of the hen, and calls her in 

 his most persuasive manner. I do not suppose that 

 in such cases the rooster is conscious of the fraud 

 he is practicing. His instinct, under such circum 

 stances, is to pick up food and call the attention of 

 the hen to it, and when no food is present, he in 

 stinctively picks up a pebble or a stick. His main 

 purpose is to get the hen near him, and not to feed 

 her. When he is intent only on feeding her, he 

 never offers her a stone instead of bread. 



We have only to think of the animals as habitually 

 in a condition analogous to, or identical with, the 

 unthinking and involuntary character of much of 

 our own lives. They are creatures of routine. They 

 are wholly immersed in the unconscious, involun 

 tary nature out of which we rise, and above which 

 our higher lives go on. 



190 



