SCHEMES FOR SELF-PROTECTION 7 

 live in constant peril of their lives, and man 

 is not their least enemy. But nature has a 

 variety of wonderful schemes for self-protec- 

 tion. I say se//-protection, because my belief 

 is that life devoid of self-consciousness is the 

 pure expression of Omniscience. Were the 

 creatures self-conscious they would reason for 

 themselves, and in consequence be liable to 

 err. But they make no mistakes, as will be 

 seen, because they are governed entirely by 

 instinctive mind, which is the subconscious 

 principle directly transmitted from the " main- 

 spring " — ^All-Mind. For this reason the sub- 

 conscious principle in animals and all living 

 things is infallible — ^infallible in so far as 

 relates to the imminent necessities of the 

 creatures, whatsoever. Untrammelled by any 

 process of reasoning, the subconscious mind 

 makes no mistakes, requires no mental exer- 

 cise, and is never forgetful. This mind is re- 

 sponsible for all internal functions, circulation, 

 respiration, etc., of the organism, besides con- 

 trolling external movements and manifesta- 

 tions (animals). 



Now we shall observe how this mind 

 functions on a plane where there can be no 

 question of reasoning powers. For instance, 

 we will consider the hfe of a lepidopteron 

 (butterfly), which undergoes a series of changes 



