THE ANIMAL MIND 



ascribing to it design, plan, purpose, invention, 

 rationality, we are accused of anthropomorphism, 

 and science will not listen to us. Yet all we know 

 of laws and principles, of cause and effect, of me- 

 chanics and dynamics, of chemistry and evolution, 

 we learn from this outward nature. Through our 

 gift of reason we draw out and formulate, or trans- 

 late into our mental concepts, Nature's method of 

 procedure. Shall we say, then, that Nature is 

 rational without reason? wise without counsel? 

 that she builds without rule, and dispenses with- 

 out plan? is she full of mind-stuff, or does she 

 only stimulate the mind-stuff in ourselves? It is 

 evident that Nature knows not our wisdom or eco- 

 nomics, our prudence, our benevolence, our methods, 

 our science. These things are the result of our re- 

 action to the stimulus she-affords, just as the sensa- 

 tion we call light is our reaction to certain vibra- 

 tions, the sensation we call sound is the reaction to 

 other kinds of vibrations, and the sensation we call 

 heat, the reaction to still other. The mind, the 

 reason, is in us; the cause of it is in Nature. 



When we translate her methods into our own 

 terms, we call it the method of " trial and error," — 

 a blind groping through infinite time and infinite 

 space, till every goal is reached. If her arch falls, a 

 stronger arch may be formed by its ruins; if her 

 worlds collide, other worlds may be born of the 

 collision; it one species perishes, other species may 

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