Sel] AND SYMBOLS. 311 



Self-Deception. 



Sometimes we persistently deceive ourselves. We insist 

 upon pursuing a policy for our benefit which all but ourselves 

 clearly see to be absurd and useless. We cling to a pet project 

 and nurse a worthless conceit long after the folly of both is 

 recognised by everybody else. But we are not altogether to be 

 blamed. For instinct itself is sometimes at fault, and its 

 powers are uselessly applied. A hen will sit with the greatest 

 tenacity on rounded pieces of chalk ; and the Hamster rat 

 breaks the wings of dead birds as well as of living ones before 

 it devours them. Insects also occasionally err on the same 

 principle, as when the blow-fly lays its eggs on the flower of the 

 stapelia, deceived by its carrion-like odour. A spider, deprived 

 of its egg-bag, will cherish with the same fondness a little 

 pellet of cotton thrown to it. p. 



Man's Self-Adapting Power. 



Man possesses a grand capacity for adapting himself to the 

 requirements of circumstances. Much as he needs fresh air and 

 light he is able to spend his existence in the operations of 

 mining, where the air is always impure, and light never comes. 

 Important as exercise is to him, he nevertheless can accustom 

 himself to avocations which are entirely sedentary, and deprive 

 him of all muscular activity. He needs his legs for walking, 

 but if they are amputated we soon find him providing himself 

 with some other means of locomotion. He requires his hands 

 for painting and writing : but when he has not hands, we find 

 him painting and writing by means of his toes. His teeth are 

 indispensable for mastication : but, when he loses them, he 

 invents a contrivance of his own in their place. Now, elastic 

 as this power of adaptation to circumstances is in man, it is 

 scarcely less marvellous in some of the lower creatures. Take, 

 for example, the water-spider (Argyroneta aquatica). Her 

 instinct instructs her to fabricate a kind of diving-bell in the 

 bosom of the water. She usually selects still waters for this 

 purpose. Her house is an oval cocoon, filled with air, and 



