Ins] AND SYMBOLS. 175 



ready to perform his part discreetly, when the man who is not 

 similarly endowed is in all the tumult of surprise and confusion. 

 But this instinct is not confined to man ; it has a far wider 

 range. And the individual who has not yet seen the 

 advantages of being ready in season and out of season will do 

 well to investigate this matter. He will be surprised at the 

 state of constant preparedness in which even creatures far 

 inferior to himself are to be found. The Actiniae throw out their 

 feelers and expand themselves when a continuance of fino 

 weather is to be expected, but withdraw and contract themselves, 

 even in a room, when a change is impending. The mussels, 

 before the approach of a storm, spin several new threads to 

 secure their hold on the rocks ; and leeches rise to the surface 

 of the water before rain. Spiders enlarge their webs during 

 fine weather, but spin only short threads, work seldom, or hide 

 themselves in corners during rain. Many beetles, by their 

 active flight and humming sounds, give tokens of the morrow's 

 brightness. Before rain, bees remain either in their hives or 

 in the neighbourhood of them ; and ants convey deep into the 

 hills the pupae which they expose to the sun in fine weather. 

 If the atmosphere be lowering in the morning, pigeons feed 

 rapidly, and return to their cots, and the hare hides itself ; but 

 the mole comes to the surface of the ground, and the squirrel 

 seeks its nest and shuts its entrance. D. 



Instinct Unsubmissive to Argument. 



You may make your position logically perfect, and your 

 hearer may admit it to be so ; but it does not follow that either 

 of your minds is so influenced thereby that your feeling in 

 regard to the subject-matter will be changed. Take the case of 

 our aversion to reptiles. Strange, grotesque, and oftentimes 

 most repulsive in appearance, though sometimes adorned with 

 the brightest tints, the reptiles excite an instinctive repugnance 

 in the human breast ; and whether it be a lizard, a snake, or a 

 tortoise, contact of one of these beings will cause even the most 

 habituated to recoil from its cold touch. Now you may argue 

 that many of these reptiles are quite harmless, and some of them 

 handsome, and that, therefore, our repugnance cannot be enter- 



