THE RELIGION OF NATUBE 



In this connection it is interesting to follow 

 through nature the several stages by which man 

 has reached this remarkable pre-eminence. 



Among the lowest types of animals the nervous 

 system, which has culminated in the brain of man, 

 is not distinguishable, and is certainly not differ- 

 ent from that of the lowest orders of plants. 

 There are still some creatures concerning which 

 scientists debate whether they should be classed 

 as animals or plants. 



But for our present purpose we need not go 

 lower than the insects creatures which, in many 

 ways, are as highly developed as man himself. 

 Here we find the nervous system concentrated in 

 knots or ganglia, situated at intervals down the 

 body, with the result that one part of an insect 

 has no correct knowledge of what another part 

 may be suffering or enjoying. 



A wasp may be snipped with a pair of scissors 

 across the narrow " waist " which separates the 

 thorax from the abdomen, and it will still go on 

 feeding as though nothing had happened, al- 

 though the syrup which it swallows merely makes 

 a pool behind its severed trunk. 



A sleeping moth upon a tree-trunk may be 

 dexterously transfixed by an entomologist with a 

 pin, so that it does not even awake. 



I have seen a large moth which had been trod- 

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