120 NO DISEASE IN PURE NATURE 

 every lawn in the kingdom. All these birds 

 are modelled exactly on the same pattern, and 

 each is equally fit and in sympathy with its 

 surroundings. 



In pure nature, freaks and deformities do 

 not survive, nor do I believe there is any real 

 disease. Epidemics and disease are directly 

 or indirectly the result of man's interference 

 (overcrowding, usually), which upsets the 

 balance, when nature is compelled to step in 

 with drastic measures in order to readjust it. 

 Hereditary disease and imperfections are not 

 possible in pure nature ; if a creature is in 

 any way defective (unfit) it perishes, because 

 no longer in tune with its surroundings, 

 therefore the evil is not perpetuated. 



These alternate periods of activity and im- 

 mobihty observed in wild creatures result, I 

 believe, from the very fact that they have no 

 thinking faculty ; indeed, they are proof of it. 

 During the passive state the creature is, of 

 course, thinking of nothing, it is not even 

 aware of its own existence ; at the same time, 

 what sense organs it possesses are, as it were, 

 set at " high tension," ready for immediate 

 reception of extemcd impressions, which, as 

 they occur, are promptly acted upon, when the 

 creature becomes as energetic as before it was 

 immobile. 



