236 UNIVERSAL EVOLUTION 



confined to one mode of cutting down a tree, by his 

 teeth in lieu of an axe, yet when the tree, in order to 

 serve the purpose of its cutting, viz. : to become 

 part of a dam, must fall, after the cutting, in a par- 

 ticular place, the beaver cuts the tree with his teeth, 

 so as to make it fall where he wants it to fall, as surely 

 as an axrnan could do. Both of these acts involve 

 knowledge and reason. If there is a difference, it is 

 one of degree, rather than kind. As Bergson says : 

 "So long as consciousness is all we are concerned with, 

 we close our eyes to what is, from the psychological 

 point of view, the cardinal difference between instinct 

 and intelligence." At least it seems, what instinct 

 does is for the best welfare of the life represented by 

 it, quite as much so, and perhaps oftener, than it is, 

 in case of intelligence. Both are hereditary, and there- 

 fore both must be the results of evolution. 



At least, the babe which seeks, at once, uncon- 

 sciously its mother's breast, displays just the same 

 kind of intelligence, that the atom of the nebula did, 

 when it moved unconsciously, in the proper direction 

 of condensation, for the formation of a universe, in- 

 stead of in the wrong direction, by dispersion. The 

 movement of the babe, so unconscious, and fraught 

 with so momentous consequences to itself, and its 

 race, was inherited from the atom of the far away 

 nebula, the instinct and intelligence both, of doing 

 the right thing consciously, or unconsciously, in unison 

 with the cosmic movement, in the evolution of the 

 present flux of duration, called the universe. 



It is true, the intellect has more than one choice in 

 its manner of adjusting the ego to an environment, 

 which it is unable to control in the least degree. This 

 adjustment is very limited. It seems to be confined to 



