THE RELIGION OF NATURE 



landscape. Usually there is some man moving 

 about somewhere in the distance, and the nervous 

 rooks watch him. 



All this while the other rooks are feeding. Their 

 instinct bids them to eat all they can so long as 

 there are some rooks up in the tree on the look-out. 



But presently the rook in the tree is satisfied 

 that there is no danger anywhere besides which, 

 he is very hungry so he descends and joins the 

 others. Some of these, having partially satisfied 

 their hunger, feel more nervous than they did; 

 and they fly up into the trees. After a time they 

 again descend, and others, actuated by the same 

 fears, take their place. So it almost always hap- 

 pens that some birds are in the trees when rooks 

 are plundering a sown field; but all of them are 

 acting entirely on their own account, not knowing 

 that nature has crystallized this habit in them for 

 the good of the community. 



In fact, nowhere in nature, except where man is 

 concerned, will you find any evidence of deliber- 

 ately concerted action appropriate to the circum- 

 stances of the occasion. How, then, did man 

 acquire this remarkable faculty? The answer is, 

 through hardship through the stress of a severe 

 struggle for existence sharpening his natural 

 ability. 



For, if a man looks at himself, he finds plain 



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