A SHARP LOOKOUT. 15 



probably started its roots in all directions, but only 

 the one on the upper side survived and matured. 

 Those on the lower side finally perished, and others 

 lower down took their places. Thus the whole life 

 upon the globe, as we see it, is the result of this blind 

 groping and putting forth of Nature in every direc- 

 tion, with failure of some of her ventures and the s 

 success of others, the circumstances, the environ- 

 ments, supplying the checks and supplying the stim- 

 ulus, the seed falling upon the barren places just the 

 same as upon the fertile. No discrimination on the 

 part of Nature that we can express in the terms of 

 our own consciousness, but ceaseless experiments in 

 every possible direction. The only thing inexplica- 

 ble is the inherent impulse to experiment, the origi- 

 nal push, the principle of Life. 



The good observer of nature holds his eye long and 

 firmly to the point, as one does when looking at a puz- 

 zle picture, and will not be baffled. The cat catches 

 the mouse, not merely because she watches for him, 

 but because she is armed, to catch him and is quick. 

 So the observer finally gets the fact, not only because 

 he has patience, but because his eye is sharp and his 

 inference swift. Many a shrewd old farmer looks 

 upon the milky-way as a kind of weathercock, and. 

 will tell you that the way it points at night indicates 

 the direction of the wind the following day. So also 

 every new moon is either a dry moon or a wet moon, 

 dry if a powder-horn would hang upon the lower 

 limb, wet if it would not ; forgetting the fact that, as 



