A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE 153 



meaning of such a sense its certitude and its value 

 to the lower animals and to man living in a state of 

 nature, as he has existed for (let us say) a million 

 years. My case was this. I was in a forest, and in 

 the middle of a thick wood covering an area of several 

 miles, with dense thickets and bogs and streams on 

 its borders. I had been in it for several hours watch- 

 ing some woodland birds I was interested in, and, 

 absorbed in my occupation, night surprised me and 

 a sudden darkness caused by a cloud overspreading 

 the sky; I realised that I was lost, since I did not 

 know in which part of the wood I was, or which 

 direction to take, and could not see on which side 

 the sun had gone down. I feared, too, that if I tried 

 to get out I should most probably get among the 

 bogs and streams and dense thickets. And it was 

 getting cold, as I was in the thinnest summer clothes 

 and had been perspiring profusely. And suddenly, 

 while standing there peering into the thick blackness 

 all round me and feeling keenly distressed, relief 

 came, and it was as if I had been captive and was 

 unexpectedly set free. I did not know where I was 

 and where the feared bogs were, but I knew in which 

 direction to go. There was no hesitation, no shadow 

 of a doubt. Off I went rejoicing where my super- 

 natural faculty, as it then almost seemed to be, 

 commanded, and after walking for half an hour 

 came upon a blacker blackness where the under- 

 growth was so dense that it was extremely difficult 

 to force my way through it. Again and again I 

 came to places like that, yet dared not attempt to 



