COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



darkness, as we see a fresh-water polyp seek the 

 darkest corner of a vessel exposed to direct sun- 

 light. Among the higher animals possessed 

 of developed organs of sense and of relatively- 

 complex nervous systems, the classifying pro- 

 cess is carried to much greater completeness. 

 Along with a tolerably wide set of distinctions 

 between various classes of plants and weaker 

 animals that are more or less useful and desir- 

 able as food, and between various classes of 

 inorganic phenomena that are serviceable or 

 dangerous, and of stronger animals that are to 

 be dreaded as enemies, — there is also a clear 

 perception of the distinct modes of action in- 

 volved in the acquisition of desired objects, and 

 in the escape from menacing dangers ; form- 

 ing an aggregate of knowledge which implies 

 quite an extensive comparison and classifica- 

 tion of experiences. Besides all this, there is a 

 set of special distinctions between special orders 

 of phenomena, — between the various kinds 

 and degrees of sound, odour and temperature, 

 — which in some cases exceed in discriminative 

 accuracy any of the corresponding empirical 

 distinctions which the human mind is able 

 to recognize. And in the dog, who has from 

 time immemorial been the friend and servant 

 of man, there is superadded to all this a rudi- 

 mentary moral classification of actions as praise- 

 worthy or blameworthy; as is seen, for instance, 

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