THE INSURGENCE OF LIFE 185 



the storm-petrels flying over the waves with dangling feet, 

 never touching land except to nest ; or the salmon leaping 

 the falls ; or the elvers on their journey up-stream, we feel 

 again the insurgence of life. When we gaze at the cut 

 stem of the Sequoia, which was a sapling a few years after 

 the Fall of Rome, we are in presence of another form of the 

 Will to Live. When we consider, as we have been doing, 

 the fascinating wonder of bird-migration one of the great 

 adventures of life we have a fine expression of the same 

 quality. But, most of all, when we come to reckon with the 

 history of organisms, when we see life slowly creeping 

 upwards through the ages, adapting itself to every niche 

 of opportunity, expressing itself progressively with in- 

 creasing freedom and fullness, do we realize what is meant 

 by insurgence. 



