Responsibility in Relation to Nature 19 



house and shelter themselves for that season. Insects which 

 singly might be impotent, practice the valuable aids of asso- 

 ciation and organization, and so on. 



Where these habits prevail they are always exercised with 

 the same impulse for their use, which is self-preservation 

 and betterment, in short the achievement of benefits, the 

 neglect of which involves suffering, perhaps in the extreme. 



These facts show plainly that responsibility for actions, 

 and liability for consequences, as the basis for conduct, 

 apply to life in all grades. It is evident that although the 

 higher animals endowed with superior intellect and powers, 

 can make a more effective contest against adverse circum- 

 stances and calamitous accidents ; yet the difference between 

 them and the lowest wielders of will is only of degree. The 

 original liabilities are not abolished, and the relief from 

 them is only conditional ; and it depends upon the use of 

 the greater powers, which necessitates greater wisdom. 

 The responsibility is of the same nature as before, but in- 

 volved in a more complicated form, and with opportunities 

 for greater service. 



And continuing upward in the review of animal life 

 mankind is found in the same predicament. Even his 

 reasoning power and language, and historic memory and 

 mathematical forecast, have not made an end of his sus- 

 ceptibility to nature's injuries and still less to her cataclysms. 

 He earns his greater freedom, approaching immunity, by 

 cultivation and vigilant use of his abilities. The cessation 

 of his work speedily brings the end of his privilege. Heat 

 and cold and wet and wind ; or any one of them, abase him 

 as quickly as it would a worm without brains, when he 



