INSTINCTIVE, EMOTIONAL AND REFLEX ACTION 357 



instinctive actions. Man that forms the ship and sub- 

 marine must also instruct the submarine. It could not 

 be otherwise. If the builder knows how to produce ma- 

 chines for a certain purpose, he will also know how to 

 use them and instruct others how to use them. The plant 

 which catches insects makes a gastric juice which digests 

 and dissolves them. These actions are not different from 

 those of man catching animals and preparing them. The 

 object and purpose of the actions are the same. 



The plant cells that make seed pods which look like 

 worms or caterpillars, in order to fool the birds into carry- 

 ing them around and scattering the seeds, show the same 

 intelligence as man in his attempts to fool other people. 

 The plant that builds fortifications some distance from 

 itself, of thorns, to keep animals away, does so with an 

 intelligent purpose, just as man has. However, in the 

 case of plants, it is the cells that build tne plant -and fur- 

 nish the intelligence. 



The books are full of attempts to distinguish between 

 instinct, reflex action and reason, but they all fail. The 

 fact is, they are all intelligent acts. There is no distinc- 

 tion. The old popular phraseology, that animals act only 

 from instinct and that man alone acts from reason, is ab- 

 surd and without foundation. 



The cell builds all animals and plants and directs the 

 action of all. They are all intelligent acts. The insec- 

 tivorous plants decoy and catch insects in large numbers. 

 The single cell pursues and captures other cells and de- 

 vours them. The actions are deliberate and purposive, 

 'just as in insects, animals and man; there is no distinc- 

 tion. The young swallow can fly in its first attempt be- 

 cause in the memory of the cells that made him and oc- 

 cupy and guide his body, there is stored all the experi- 

 ences of past generations together with those recently 



