REALM OF UNCONSCIOUSNESS 



other creatures perform its function by rote, 

 glibly repeating, without understanding, the les- 

 son which their ancestors laboriously learned in 

 the long experience of ages. We repeat it by rote 

 also, but we see and enjoy its beauty. 



Many modern writers of repute repute justly 

 earned by their learning and their literary style 

 have done some harm to the cause of true knowl- /?/ 

 edge by the omission to draw this line of distinc- 

 tion between the automatic instincts of other 

 animals and the conscious understanding of man. 



Lord Avebury (better known, perhaps, as Sir 

 John Lubbock), who is a splendid authority upon 

 the habits of ants, etc., persists in treating those 

 habits as if they were the habits of human beings, 

 with the result that he leads his readers to a 

 standpoint from which they get a wholly incor- 

 rect view of nature at large. 



Take, for instance, his account of the ants 

 which, he says, collect the eggs of the aphides, or 

 plant-lice, which supply them with sugar food, in 

 the autumn, cherish them safely underground 

 during the perilous time of winter, and in spring 

 replace the young aphides which emerge from 

 them upon their proper food plants, and thus 

 secure for themselves a plentiful supply of sugar 

 food during the following summer. In these pro- 

 ceedings Lord Avebury sees forethought and rea- 

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