THE RELIGION OF N A T U K E 



All instinctive actions of a larger kind, how- 

 ever, appear to have been brought under the con- 

 trol of our conscious reason; because it would 

 manifestly be dangerous for a comparatively 

 slow-moving animal like man to betray his pres- 

 ence to an enemy by moving before he had realized 

 the situation and had made up his mind what was 

 the best course to adopt. Depending upon his 

 brains rather than his speed or his strength, he 

 acquired the power of thinking before acting. 



In the struggle of existence every kind of crea- 



p: ture has acquired the unconscious instinctive 



^ habit of suiting its conduct to circumstances. 



Each individual inherits this habit from its an- 



s cestors ; and the actions which it performs are 



specially suited to the varied conditions of its 



life, because they have gradually been developed 



by the experience of ages. 



It is true that, of the various lines of conduct 

 open to us at any moment, our human reason 

 selects that which seems the right one ; but nature, 

 in the case of other animals, has made the selec- 

 tion once for all by the slow process of eliminat- 

 ing all courses but the right one. Thus the actions 

 of animals (which would not exist to-day if long 

 lines of ancestors had not handed down to them 

 the habit of doing the right thing in any natural 

 circumstances) often appear to us to be prompted 

 [26] 



