VII 

 NATURE AND ANIMAL LIFE 



HOW surely every drop of water that sees the 

 light in the most remote mountain or forest 

 recesses finds its way to the sea, if not in some way 

 intercepted! How surely the springs collect into 

 rivulets, the rivulets into brooks, the brooks into 

 creeks, the creeks into rivers, and the rivers sooner 

 or later find their way to the great ocean reservoir ! 

 Dip up a cup of water from the little mountain rill 

 and ask it whither it is going, and if it could reply 

 it would say: "I am going to the sea; I have no 

 choice in the matter. I am blind, I have no power 

 of self -direction, but my way is appointed, and I 

 know that sooner or later I shall reach the great 

 deep." It seems as if some engineer had planned and 

 shaped the face of the landscape and of the conti- 

 nent with this very end in view. But the engineer 

 was the water itself. Water flows downhill; that 

 settles it. It is all the inevitable result of natural 

 law. Neither the lives of men nor those of the 

 lower animals escape the action of similar universal 

 laws; especially are the lower animals under their 

 dominion. 



In the first place, the activities of all creatures 

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