The Swarm Spirit 



fast because it rested on the back of a great 

 elephant ; which was satisfactory till a thoughtful 

 child asked, "But the elephant, what does he 

 stand on?" So when I see intelligent caribou 

 or plover fleeing from an unsensed danger, and am 

 told that they have received an impulse from 

 without, I am bound to ask, "Where did that im- 

 pulse come from, and who sent it?" For emo- 

 tional impulses do not drop like rain from the 

 clouds, or fall like apples from unseen trees ; they 

 must have their source in a living, intelligent being 

 of some kind, who must feel the impulse before 

 sending it to others. No other explanation is 

 humanly comprehensible. 



This leads to the second objection to the theory 

 of external impulse, and to every other notion 

 of a collective or incorporeal swarm instinct 

 namely, that it contradicts all the previous ex- 

 perience of the wild creature, or at least all educa- 

 tive experience, which lies plain and clear to our 

 observation. To each bird and animal are given 

 individual senses, individual wit and a personal 

 anima; and each begins his mortal experience not 

 in a great flock or herd, but always in solitary 

 fashion, under the care and guidance of a mother 

 animal that has a saving knowledge of a world 

 in which the little one is a stranger. Thus, I 

 watch the innocent fawn when it begins to follow 



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