London to John O' Groat's. 149 



creation had to be ascertained by its first, feeble and 

 confused reasonings. No one of to-day can say how 

 low down in the scale of intelligence the human mind 

 began to exercise its untried faculties ; what apposition 

 and deduction of thoughts it required to individualise the 

 commonest objects that met the eye ; even to determine 

 that the body it animated was not an immovable part 

 of the earth itself ; to obtain fixed notions of distance, 

 of color, light and heat ; to learn the properties and 

 uses of plants, herbs and fruits ; even to see the sun 

 sink out of sight with the sure faith that it would rise 

 again. It was gifted with no instinct, to decide these 

 questions instantly and mechanically. They had all to 

 pass through the varied processes of reason. The first 

 bird that sang in Eden, built its first nest as perfectly 

 as its last. But, thought by thought, the first human 

 mind worked out conclusions which the dullest beast or 

 bird reached instantly without reason. What wonder- 

 ful co- working of internal and external influences was 

 provided to keep thought in sleepless action ; to open, 

 one by one, the myriad petals of the mind ! Nature, 

 with all its shifting sceneries, filled every new scope of 

 vision with objects that hourly set thought at play in a 

 new line of reflection. Then, out of man's physical 

 being came a thousand still small voices daily, whisper- 

 ing, Think! think! The first-born necessities, few 



