6 HABIT AND INTELLIGENCE. [cHAP. 



which, in the mind of the engineer, has devised the con- 

 struction of iron pillars hollowed out like those bones and 

 feathers ; and the same intelligence that guides the bee in 

 its unconscious shaping of hexagonal ceUs is also that 

 which, in our minds, understands the properties of the 

 hexagon. 



This view of the essential identity of orgaiuc intelligence 

 and mental intelligence is, I believe, generally received 

 among the Germans ; but it will be new to most Enghsh 

 readers, who have been accustomed to refer all organic 

 adaptations to creative wisdom directly. Such an hypothesis 

 was inevitable for believers in a Personal Creator, at least 

 so long as the world and all that it contains was supposed 

 to have been created in a few days. But now that we know 

 the antiquity of the world to be almost immeasurable ; and 

 now that arguments, which I believe to be conclusive, have 

 been brought forward to prove that every organized form 

 is the result, not of a simple creative act, but of slow 

 A special development ; it appears more reasonable to believe that 

 creation is ^^^^ ^^^^ development has taken place, not in virtue of 

 notneces- a fresh exercise of Creative Power at every one of the 

 every °new almost infinitely numerous stages, but in virtue of a 

 adapta- principle of intelligence, which guides all organic forma- 

 tion and all motor instincts, and finally becomes conscious 

 in the brains of the higher animals, and conscious of itseK 

 in man. 



This view, as I have already remarked, has the great 

 advantage of including instinctive intelligence as a case 

 of the same general principle with all other intelligence. 

 It leaves instinct mysterious indeed, but not more myste- 

 rious than all life, and not anomalous, as it was under 

 the old view. 

 Moral The view I have stated has also the advantage of re- 



difficulties j^Qying certain very serious difficulties connected with the 

 by this Divine Purpose of Creation. I refer especially to the ex- 

 ^*^' . . istence of such animals as parasitic worms, which are as 

 worms. well adapted as any others for their mode of life, but have 

 probably no sensation and certainly no consciousness, and 

 inflict pain, disease, and death on animals that possess 



