102 NO LEADERS 



(speaking generally) have no reasoning mind.^ 

 If this is so, there can be no leaders in the true 

 sense of the word. The only approach to such 

 a condition in wild nature is the case of young - 

 who follow their parents, and a train of females 

 headed by an old male. But this is merely a 

 natural tendency of the weak to follow the 

 stronger, and amounts to nothing beyond the 

 simple act of following. 



I shall now bring evidence in support of this 

 belief, viz., that in wild life there are no 

 leaders in the true sense of the meaning. (The 

 functions of a leader can only be understood 

 in relation to an intelligent reasoning mind.) 

 Indeed it would be difficult to imagine that 

 the countless hordes of locusts and myriads 

 of lepidoptera, seen on migration, are influ- 

 enced by leaders. However, to go more 

 particularly into the matter we shall consider 

 the doings of the duck tribe, plovers and 

 others. 



When on long flight these birds range them- 

 selves up in a > shape figure, with the result 

 that a single bird heads the party at the apex. 



1 "Some of the higher animals" (dogs, apes, horses, etc.), "who 

 for a long period of time have been closely associated with man, 

 have through his mental emanations acquired some faint reason- 

 ing powers." In such cases it is possible that the discarnate 

 spirit of the animal does not return to the group-soul but remains 

 individualized. 



