ASSIMILA TION OF OUTSIDE MA TTER. 139 



the whole, she said, had been very good to her. The 

 only things we really hate are unfamiliar things, and 

 though nature would not be nature if she did not cross 

 our love of the familiar with a love also of the un- 

 familiar, yet there can be no doubt which of the two 

 principles is master. 



Let us return, however, to the grain of corn. If 

 the grain had had presence of mind to avoid being 

 carried into the gizzard stones, as many seeds do which 

 are carried for hundreds of miles in birds' stomachs, 

 and if it had persuaded itself that the novelty of the 

 position was not greater than it could very well manage 

 to put up with — if, in fact, it had not known when it 

 was beaten — it might have stuck in the hen's stomach 

 and begun to grow ; in this case it would have assimi- 

 lated a good part of the hen before many days were 

 over ; for hens are not familiar with grains that grow 

 in their stomachs, and unless the one in question 

 was as strongminded for a hen, as the grain that 

 could avoid being assimilated would be for a grain, 

 the hen would soon cease to take an interest in 

 her antecedents. It is to be doubted, however, whether 

 a grain has ever been grown which has had strength 

 of mind enough to avoid being set off its balance on 

 finding itself inside a hen's gizzard. For living 

 organism is the creature of habit and routine, and the 

 inside of a gizzard is not in the grain's programme. 



Suppose, then, that the grain, instead of being carried 

 into the gizzard, had stuck in the hen's throat and 

 choked her. It would now find itself in a position 

 very like what it had often been in before. That is 



